Climate Change --- Not a good time to be a polar bear!

[calebB]

LM,

Ditto about not dumping stuff in the water-- I'm all for it.

...About the deer eating trash- what you mention was an isolated incident-- not a common occurance.  I am not saying it doesn't happen, but it is certainly not the reason for increased populations in urban areas.  Here is a quote from the same page as yours.

White-tail deer feed on a variety of vegetation, depending on what is available in their habitat. They are browsers feeding on twigs, leaves, bark, shrubs, the fruits and nuts of most vegetation, as well as lichens and other fungi. In desert areas, plants such as huajillo brush, yucca, prickly pear cactus, comal, ratama and various tough shrubs may be the main components of a White-tail's diet.

Deer are browsers.  Elk are grazers.  Bears are scavengers-- they're the ones living out of a trash can.

And about species going extinct-- I don't believe that we should go extinct just so some other little animals don't go extinct.  Believe me, I am as much for the brook trout restoration program in the smokies as you are, but if they had gone extinct, it wouldn't have hindered you from living.  I am not justifying the logger's actions, it's just they didn't know any better.  Let's be happy that we now know how to log without damaging the forests like clear cutting.

Caleb

[trouthemp]

There are some other indicators of climate change. When I was a kid, I never had to worry about west Nile virus. From what I am reading, west Nile does not occur in temps below 50, but there was several cases reported up in northern Minnesota, where I grew up. I have also noticed the winters are not as cold, nor is the snow fall that heavy by comparison to previous years. I don't understand the long term effects yet, but I think it will be good in some regions, and disastrous in others.

Places that are dry now, might become even dryer and may change to a desert, where as places that may have had cooler climate might change to a milder climate, with more rain than the region can take. Years down the road, we know what the effects are and they might not be good for the southern US regions.