Another blog entry that basically says we’re out of time to deal with climate change. It is here, and it is changing our world right now.
I’m sure you’ve been hearing all the stories about frogs – lots of different kinds of frogs in lots of different places. There is a catastrophic drop in the numbers of frogs, with some types endangered and at risk of extinction.
What I haven’t heard mentioned much is that global warming is the major culprit. Sure, it’s various fungus or parasites endangering the frogs. But why now, and why on such a scale? Becuase the world is warmer – warm enough that these enemies of frog life are thriving. Just a few degrees gives them more life, increases their numbers – and dooms the frogs.
I’m betting, though it hasn’t been mentioned, that the emerald ash borers, killing hundreds of thousands of Ohio’s trees right now, are the same kind of opportunistic life form. When winters aren’t quite as cold for quite as long, and when the weather the rest of the year really supports them, the borers goes from being a peripheral pest to destroying our woodlands. Which, of course, sets lots of other things out of balance, while it deprives us of CO2 storage, an on-going cash crop, and simply beauty and peace.
We do not seem to be very intelligent life forms ourselves, and we seem to opportunistically successful at shooting ourselves in our collective feet.