Ugh

Because I've already set the precedent, I feel it's my duty to convey additional doom and gloom information - not to depress (though it likely will), but to inform and motivate.

In another sign of rising global temperatures, a large piece of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in western Antarctica collapsed quite suddenly starting Feb 28th. A chunk of ice roughly seven times the size of Manhattan that had been at the edge of the shelf for maybe 1500 years disintegrated, exposing the rest of the ice shelf and putting at risk of further collapse an area of ice about the size of Connecticut. Scientists with both the British Antarctic Survey and with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, CO said that collapses on this scale are unusual but becoming increasingly common because of global climate change. They say such occurrences are indicative of an approaching "tipping point or trigger in the climate system" beyond which destabilization causes further change in a "runaway situation."

Blame man-made global warming, too, for speeding up Mother Nature's alarm clock that plants and animals are listening to. According to more than 30 scientists, dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists, thousands of species are being affected by seasonal timing changes. Butterflies are emerging a month earlier in California than they did 25 years ago, DC's cherry trees burst out several weeks sooner than than they did a quarter century ago, and maple tree pollen was filling the air in early march this year when it once couldn't be measured until late April. Lilacs, dogwoods and wildfires are blooming nationwide earlier than ever before, birds and insects hatching earlier.

Aside from being a very clear and measurable shift in the natural cycles, this could spell disaster for some species since many plants and animals use different cues to signal their spring activities. If a critter uses length of day while its food source relies on temperature, the animal may be in danger of missing its spring feeding if it can't modify its instinctual behavior, for example, something that is already being witnessed in bees and the shift in honey production to different pollen sources. Some biologists are warning that a whole host of species may be seriously impacted as the spring clock continues to speed up.

Meanwhile, this winter was the warmest ever recorded for most of Europe, where icebreakers sat unused in northern ports, insects buzzed year-round, daffodils and snowdrops bloomed early, and robins never even bothered to leave southern Sweden for the season. Across the Baltic region, temps averaged 8-12 degrees above average and Finland had a mere 20 days of snow, compared with 70 days in the normal winter. Normally frozen ground was soft and muddy, and the ferries to Helsinki, which normally cannot operate from December through April, ran without interruption.

Globally, March was officially the warmest March ever on record over land, and second warmest overall. The worldwide land temp was 3.2 degree warmer than the 20th century average.

Sure seems as though, despite local variations, we've got a pretty clear trend here. Reuse, recycle, unplug and conserve!