Monday, January 09, 2012
Save The Owls from Nothing In Particular!
In today's news:
Rather amazingly, the article doesn't blame the usual suspect. Maybe the biologists have finally decided that there's no point in blaming the usual suspect?
It's easy to see why the usual suspect doesn't belong in the picture. Here are some Alaska patterns from NCDC.
Autumn temperature:
Shows one extreme in 2002, otherwise nothing special.
Annual temperature:
Shows the well-known 1976 regime shift, but the last few years are average, appear to be regressing to the mean.
Annual precip:
Nothing special anywhere; last few years are on the wet side of average, but below earlier wet-sides.
I'll be watching in case some fucking dickhead tries to blame this on the BURNING BURNING BURNING HUNK OF HELL caused by human CARBON SIN AND INIQUITY.
At the moment, we have a slight interval of blessed Actual Science (i.e. reserving judgment, avoiding theories) in the midst of the usual religious ratshit.
Wildlife scientists are puzzling over the appearance of the snowy owl in Oregon, a bird rarely seen in the state. [Grammar quibble: I didn't know Oregon was a bird.]
The owls are usually found in Alaska or Canada's tundra, where their white feathers serve as camouflage. But in several places across Oregon, including Burns, Astoria, Lincoln City and Eugene, the Bend Bulletin reports snowy owl sightings.
"That's a significant number of birds that aren't normally found in the state," said Simon Wray, conservation biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend.
Snowy owls have been reported around the northern United States in recent months, said Bob Russell, a wetland bird biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Minneapolis.
"They are really pouring in," he said.
Biologists speculate the bird might be making more southern appearances because of a lack of food, or perhaps because there are too many young owls in the tundra.
Rather amazingly, the article doesn't blame the usual suspect. Maybe the biologists have finally decided that there's no point in blaming the usual suspect?
It's easy to see why the usual suspect doesn't belong in the picture. Here are some Alaska patterns from NCDC.
Autumn temperature:
Shows one extreme in 2002, otherwise nothing special.
Annual temperature:
Shows the well-known 1976 regime shift, but the last few years are average, appear to be regressing to the mean.
Annual precip:
Nothing special anywhere; last few years are on the wet side of average, but below earlier wet-sides.
I'll be watching in case some fucking dickhead tries to blame this on the BURNING BURNING BURNING HUNK OF HELL caused by human CARBON SIN AND INIQUITY.
At the moment, we have a slight interval of blessed Actual Science (i.e. reserving judgment, avoiding theories) in the midst of the usual religious ratshit.
Labels: Carbon Cult
¶ 2:45 AM
