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Who do you believe; me or your own eyes?
By Peter Simmons
It continues to amaze me why those who deny global warming and climate change fail to notice changes in the environment that can only be attributed to warming. Many if not most of them are old enough to know better, since anyone under thirty hasn't a lot of experience of the world before these changes started becoming noticeable, and I have to assume their denial is deliberate and willfull; they don't WANT to notice since noticing will mean they should change both their attitude and their behaviour. Take the common Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, a broadly spreading shrub or small tree common to the UK and throughout Europe. Hawthorn is most often grown as hedging by farmers [it's the biological equivalent to barbed wire] and at this time of year you can see it everywhere in the countryside, it's white flowers making the bushes look from a distance as if covered in snow. It's used as an effective stock control since it has wicked spines as anyone who has had dealings with it will know! Traditional hedges on farms have the species in abundance. Why I mention it is that its common name is May Flower, or May Blossom. There's a clue there; it has always flowered in May and has traditionally been used in Mayday celebrations. Yet in England now it flowers in late March to early April; only much further north in Scotland does it still appear in May, Scotland being colder than the south of the UK. As I have moved to Scotland recently, I noticed it appeared a few weeks ago at the start of the month, and was reminded that in Herefordshire and other southern counties it appears in March or early April and was out before we moved on April 1st. This is just one sign that the seasons are shifting, and the climate is becoming warmer earlier. Spring comes earlier now than at any time in my life; snowdrops pop up a month before they ever used to, followed in quick succession by crocus and then daffodils. An illustration of the difference between England and Scotland is that when we moved on the 1st of April, the snowdrops had been and gone, crocues were fading and the daffodils were in full bloom, both wild and cultivated. When we arrived in Scotland, there were the snowdrops just arrived [our large garden has thousands of them], followed by the rest. Daffodils have only just stopped flowering in late May ,and are now dying off as they do. That's a good month between the two countries. So now in Scotland Hawthorn does actually bloom in May, while in England it should correctly be now called April blossom. Somehow that doesn't have the same ring to it and there's no pretty white flowers to grace the 'Maypole' celebrations. There are other easily observable events which continue to add to the massive weight of data showing climate change including species' migration time changes, and some species' movements north to more suitable climes. If one takes any notice at all of the environment and nature, one is left with the inescapable conclusion that 'something is up'. What that something is has been explained cogently and succinctly by eminently qualified people along with masses of data going back centuries and reasoned arguments. Yet the deniers continue with their obsessive conspiracy theory that thousands of scientists around the world have conspired to create a myth by massaging data and lying. It helps to accept this if you are a paranoid personality who sees conspiracy in everything, which is why the right-wing loonies in America have embraced climate denial and why, with the Bushchimp in power, America did nothing to change the American way of death which is more responsible than any other for this situation. Now at last there's a man with a brain in the top job and it's being taken seriously at last. Whether there's still time to make enough changes to save humanity from catastrophic floods, climate refugees, mass starvation and war over resouces is the big question. Approximately 30% of the Earth's surface is land, of this 20% is covered with snow, 20% is mountains, 20% dry land [or desert], and only 30% is capable of producing food. 10% of all land doesn't have any topsoil. That's 30% 0f 30% which is just 9% capable of growing our food, and on a lot of that we have cities further reducing the total. Getting the picture? All the while the human population continues to expand at an increasing rate. Make no mistake; times ahead are going to be increasingly hard, the time for selfishness and greed and the complacency of the rich and comfortable to be tolerated is long gone. The current oil spill polluting the Gulf of Mexico and eventually all seas connected to it [that's all seas] is yet one more instance of humanity's dire effect on the ecosystem. We have been bad news for other species for a long time, time now to start making up for our past ignorance, rather than petulently denying we have done anything wrong, like a stubborn five year old caught with their face smeared with chocolate.
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Contributor's Note
The title of this piece is from a Grouch Marx quote. I love Groucho's humour, another favourite is 'Outside a book, a dog is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus_monogyna
| http://hedgerowmobile.com/hawthorn.html
| http://www.arkive.org/hawthorn/crataegus-monogyna/info.html
| http://www.enotes.com/earth-science
| http://www.nineplanets.org/earth.html
  
A Hawthorn bush in full bloom outside my window in Scotland in May
A Hawthorn bush in Herefordshire a month early
Snowdrops in a Herefordshire wood in February
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Thanks a most informative and eye opening read, thanks!
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
I owe a lot to you that I've been able to post it! I had to edit the other piece, contravened the rules on mentions of you know what and who! 
Not to worry about the the plug however you are able to advertise my website in your intel, even if you can't link to a members profile.
Good Intel. How some people can deny global warming is beyond me. Still, some people probably still believe the earth is flat.
 |  | odls Jun 2, 2010 05:48 | |
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