In the decades-long struggle over whether to accept scientific evidence that global warming is taking place, the side of disbelief has summoned the remarkable occurrence of a snowstorm in the middle of winter.
The side of science, on the other hand, has a growing mountain of evidence.
The side of disbelief has critiqued a private email message lying on the side of that mountain, and declared that the mountain must not be there at all. This week, however, the mountain of evidence grew even taller, as a little butterfly, carrying 65 years of observation on its thin wings, landed on the summit.
Generations of data on the emergence of the Common Brown Butterfly in Australia have been analyzed, and a statistically significant correlation between emergence date and temperature. The Common Brown Butterfly now emerges 10 days earlier than it did back in 1935. The study is a nice complement to an earlier study that finds that many species of butterflies and moths have added breeding cycles to their annual rhythms of reproduction, as the warm season has grown longer.
Ever more signs of the deep doo-doo we’re settling in to. Nothing is being done and, like 10 or 20 years ago, if we started RIGHT NOW, it would take decades to get anything of significance up and running – so we probably still won’t (out of our ingrained lassitude). Too late now, humanity – you’re gonna suffer for being ignorant, greedy, wasteful, uncaring and lazy.