I was leaving the Smokey Mountains National park just north of Ashville today and a came acrossed a black bear meandering down the road. As a lifelong hiker I was puzzled to see a bear out of his element. Usually these are reclusive cats that are rarely seen. On my hike earlier, I came acrossed an outback campsite that was closed. THe reason for this was abnormally agressive bears... Things didnt much add up and I really didnt connect the dots till I ran into an offduty park ranger in the city. I told him of my bear experience and he went off on the reason. He said that the bears have had a bad go of it since this drought set in acrossed the region. I told him that next week they should get some remnants of Fay thinking this would cheer him up. Little did I know that storms like bring too much rain too soon. Most of it just runs off and creates erosion damage witout replenishing the water table. He told me that snow is whats needed. He said over the last decade that snow has been slow in coming and sparse in general. He said there are odd happenings in the natural world on the mountains. He said that salamanders have nearly vanished in the park and yellow jackets are now living at 4800 feet. For about an hour, (much to my wifes dismay) we spoke about the signifcance of the climate changes that he is witness to. It was an amazing conversation that I had with this guy that tied everything together. The agressive bears, the bears in the open out of their natural habitat, the salamanders and the yellow jackets..
the bears are starving because there has not been enough snow to water the blueberries during the dry season. The bears are on the move. The salamanders live in both water and land. They are most succeptible to any change in climate having to rely on both environments and the wasps have since moved to 4800 feet since the winters no longer are cool enough to kill em off...
Long story short, If anyone doubts global warming just go to the smokey mountains national park and talk to any of the rangers.
Oh.. if anyone needs a prosthetic ankle talk to James DeOrio at Duke hospital in Durham NC, since mine performed beyond belief on a three mile hike.

The bears, salamnders and yellow jackets are pretty much doing the same thing they always do in Austin. Maybe it's a localized thing.

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

Maybe youre an idiot...eh.. I guess its something you always do in austin...

If you REALLY miss those yellowjackets I'm sure we can spare a few million of them for you.

Where I think you have missed on the argument, and quite a few of the nuts do is that few people I have seen doubt or deny global warming. It's obvious in the weather here. We used to get snow occasionally here, but definitely weather into the 30s and 40s (remember, this TX not Maine). I think it got below 40 about 3-4 times this past winter.

The issue I take is the "man-made" portion of the argument with the chicken littles running around saying "we gotta do something" when they don't even know what the actual cause is. I'm a firm believer in identifying the exact cause of a problem before implementing a fix.

If this is a cyclical change in the Earth's temperature; which, has happened more than a few times in the past, then I don't see that there's a whole lot we can do about it.

Then there's the fact that IMO, urban sprawl is a bigger threat to our environment and natural wildlife than any negligible climate change. These animals have survived climate changes before.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

no doubt--I'm an idiot. Even if some catastrophic warming is occuring, I don't care. I really don't.

__________________
"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

jeepers creepers, jeepers! speaking of bears!

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Why did you comment the above to this .....

Are you a natural born smart@$$ .... or were you not looking for a serious reply

yes---I'm a natural born smart ass ( if your'e speaking to me )

__________________
"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

Wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the smart@$$ that came back and to your answer as a bonafide smart@$$!

of course you care! what about the fishies?

you're just resigned to the fact that it is bigger than any of us...right?

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Btw .... congrats on your prosthetic ankle. Too bad the doctor couldn't do something with your attitude.

way bigger than anything we can handle---clean up the air--fine---clean up the water--fine. Give the entire a good scrubbling or we will all drown ? I dont care. I can swim.

__________________
"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

I'm noticing changes in the migratory patterns of birds here in the Maine coastal flyway.

This spring I counted four bird species I'd never seen before. I've only indentified one of them, so far.


Admitted I've only been paying attention to the comings and going of birds here on this land for the last two decades.

But that's long enough for me to know what birds to expect to see during the course of a year, and when those birds can be expected to come and go through the wetlands next to my land.

The birds apparently seem to know that the climate is changing, even if some of us aren't yet aware of it.

FYI, every year some species of insect seems to dominate the summer...this is the year of the snails.

And not those cute snails with the shells, either. No such luck, its those little blogs of protoplasm that are worth nothing except to get stuck between your toes when you're walking across the lawn.

Yech!

Thanks... My wife however is a therapist she's been working on the attitude for years.. She probably thinks its a lost cause...

On a side note.. going to try a 4.2 mile trail today...

Yeah, I know that few dispute the warming aspect. I just posted this after reading some of the global cooling thread... Doesnt look like the vast majority of the black bears here are gonna make it though.. not enough food to over winter apparently..