Sweden's Tree Line Is On The Move
But let's keep waiting until the ground around us starts catching on fire until we conclude that global warming is a fact...or that it might finally be time to do something about it!
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Climate change over the past two decades has caused Sweden's tree line to move north at a faster rate than at any time in the past 7,000 years, Swedish researchers have said.
"The tree line has moved by up to 200 metres (656 feet) in some places. Trees have not grown at such high levels for around 7,000 years," Leif Kullman, a professor at Umeaa University's department of ecology and environmental science, told AFP Tuesday.
The tree line represents a limit in mountainous, northern and southern latitudes beyond which trees do not grow.
"Recordings began in 1915 but the trend has intensified in the past 15 to 20 years," Kullman said.
Sweden's climate in the past 20 years was as mild as it had been some 7,000 years ago, he added. While some of the change could be explained by natural phenomena such as the reduction in global volcanic activity -- allowing more sunlight to warm the Earth -- the trend was clearly provoked for the most part by man-made factors.
"We can say that 75 percent of the change is due to the emergence of greenhouse gases," Kullman said.
As the climate has become milder other plants and animals have ventured further north from their traditional habitat.
"The number of plants and animals in Swedish forests has grown 100 percent in the last 50 years," Kullman said.
posted by Jeff @ 7:18 AM
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1 Comments:
But let's keep waiting until the ground around us starts catching on fire until we conclude that global warming is a fact...
But the planet has a history of warming and cooling. Over the period of the Holocene I count 6 episodes of relatively pronounced warming interspersed by 5 episodes of relatively pronounced cooling. The Medieval Warm Period, Roman Climate Optimum and especially the Holocene Climate Optimum were all several degrees warmer than the Current Warm Period -which appears to be nothing more than a natural recovery from the Little Ice Age that one might reasonably expect. Therefore, the idea that the CWP is an unprecedented manmade event, simply does not stand up to serious examination. I am unaware of any climate study that has been able to distinguish an anthropogenic warming signal from the natural warming signal. The reason being that natural forces are several orders of magnitude greater the human ones. The only study that did purport to show a human signal above the natural signal was the now thoroughly discredited UN-IPCC "hockey stick" millennial climate reconstruction by Mann et al.
On another point. Kullman tells us that "the number of plants and animals in Swedish forests has grown 100 percent in the last 50 years". What I would like to know is why is this growth in the natural abundance of Swedish fauna and flora a bad thing?
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