Tapping Into a Changing Climate (People close to the earth know)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-sci-season23apr23,0,3452717.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Tapping Into a Changing Climate

A Vermont family is seeing maple-sugaring season come far earlier than usual. Experts say it may be an indicator of a wider global trend.
By Robert Lee Hotz, Times Staff Writer
April 23, 2006

JEFFERSONVILLE, Vt. — Sitting in his son's sugarhouse, Rex Marsh, 71, can recall winters so cold that no one in northern Vermont ever thought of tapping a sugar maple before town meeting day on the first Tuesday of March.

The winter snow routinely drifted 6 feet deep. Every sluggish step was in snowshoes. Even if the trees thawed, the sap would freeze in the bucket, bursting its metal seams.


"I've been doing this since I was big enough to carry a bucket," Marsh said. "Tapping in January? Never. Never. Never."

......

While officials argue over carbon emission controls and global warming treaties, tree farmers such as the Marsh family, along with gardeners, anglers and bird-watchers, sense the change in the air.

In response to rising global temperatures, spring comes as much as 13 days earlier in many parts of North America and 15 days earlier in Europe than 30 years ago, scientists say.

most people have lost touch with nature and that's sad. There were Robins in my yard in February this year. I saw mosquitoes out in January. I live in upstate New York, the great "lake effect" snow-belt. These are things I've never see in my 56 years on the planet, not even CLOSE. Bushes budding 3 months early, seeing snakes curled on rocks in January......this shit ain't NORMAL folks!

But global warming is a myth, it's just the normal cycle of the earth. :eyes: Yeah.........

For the first time in my life, I FEAR the weather.

I live in Manhattan. An island. One insurance company is now refusing to insure new homes in Manhattan, Long Island, or the eastern seaboard. Excuse me?

I look at my beloved city, and I wonder how long?