Global Warming Rushes Timing of Spring

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/AP: Global Warming Rushes Timing of Spring
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 19, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom till around April 5. In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May. And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist Dr. Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, maple pollen was already heavy in the air. Less than two decades ago, that pollen couldn't be measured until late April.

Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying. ''The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast,'' Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.

Blame global warming.

The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state.

What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring ''green-up'' is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line. In much of Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana, the satellites show spring coming a tad later, and bizarrely, in a complicated way, global warming can explain that too, the scientists said.

Biological timing is called phenology. Biological spring, which this year begins at 1:48 a.m. EDT Thursday, is based on the tilt of the Earth as it circles the sun. The federal government and some university scientists are so alarmed by the changes that last fall they created a National Phenology Network at the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor these changes. The idea, said biologist and network director Jake Weltzin, is ''to better understand the changes, and more important what do they mean? How does it affect humankind?''...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Warming-Spring.html?pagewanted=all

[notadmblnd]

1. It's 32 and sunny here and other than the huges piles of snow finally melting

and the smell of skunks. The signs of spring are still far and few between. I'm not denying global warming, but that old saying; "March comes in like a Lion, and goes out like a lamb" is not getting it here. I remember March being kite flying season, so far no one around here has been able to get out and enjoy any nice Spring weather yet.

That's Michigan for you I guess, the only place seemingly unaffected by global warming.

[sagetea]

2. My brother in law is an avid hunter

it is the only meat they eat. Last fall, Elk season,it was still to hot, the Elk were not coming down. He said then that it is because they know how the earth operates, and they intuitively stayed up higher to keep cool longer.
I also noticed last fall that my oak tree leaves did not fall until late November/early December.

[sagetea]

3. BTW

My BIL is Shoshone/ Ute indian.

[Uncle Joe]

4. It seems to me, large sections of the nation are experiencing more tornadoes in the winter time

as well, and I can't help but believe this is because of more extreme temperature variations created as a byproduct of global warming climate change.

I can't remember when we had so many in the winter time, I also believe areas that traditionally don't experience tornadoes are seeing more of them.