Swedish researchers: Arctic and sub-Arctic mammals "positively affected" by global warming

Arctic mammals have reason to rejoice. A team of Swedish researchers has found that they will be "positively affected" by projected global warming:

Researchers from Umeå University in Sweden have discovered that mammals living in the Arctic and sub-Arctic land areas in northern Europe could be positively affected by climate change between now and 2080 - if they succeed in adjusting their geographic ranges. Presented in the journal PLOS ONE, the study showed how changing climates help drive shifts in species distributions and extinctions, and range contractions and expansions. The researchers postulate that such changes will only increase in the future. 

The researchers modelled the distribution of species, finding that the majority of mammals living in these specific areas will not suffer from the changes predicted for the next 68 years.

The Umeå University researchers should be congratulated for daring to publish these "inconvenient" results. However, knowing the people who decide about science funding in Sweden - and the EU in general - their chances of getting new research money have most  likely not increased. 

Read the entire article here

Adapting to a world with people "walking around three feet tall"

The pygmies on this old photograph show  the  size  of most  people in the future,  if  one  is to believe  recent studies

Humans and other mammals as well as a lot of other living creatures are going to shrink dramatically because of human caused global warming, if we are to believe a number of recent studies.The newest shrinkers are 600 types of marine fish, which are about to dwindle up to 24% between 2000 and 2050, according to a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

Warmist scaremongers of course are telling us that shrinking will cause all kind of calamities for humankind. A L.A. Times writer e.g. thinks that "Fewer, smaller fish could result in a supply crunch, leading to higher prices of seafood down the line." However, Philip Gingerich, the researcher who first looked into shrinking animals during the PETM (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) does not see any reason to worry too much about a shrinking humanity:

"I joke about this all the time - we’re going to be walking around three feet tall if we keep going the way we’re going,” Gingerich, of the University of Michigan, said. “Maybe that’s not all bad and if that’s the worst it gets, it will be fine. You can either adapt, or you go extinct, or you can move, and there’s not a lot of place to move anymore, so I think it’s a matter of adaptation and becoming smaller.”

And in fact, a shrinking world population might not be a bad thing. Other scientists have suggested that getting a lot smaller might help with other global problems, like the fact that we're running out of food and using up too much fossil fuels to drag our obese selves around, thereby releasing too much carbon dioxide.

PS

However, adaptation to a world with ten billion pygmy sized people will not always be that easy. What will e.g. be the future of the NBA, now relying on players as tall as 7'7" (2.31 m)? It will probably be a whole new ballgame with three feet tall players! :) 

New study: Plenty of penguins in Antarctica

Even in a worst case global warming scenario, there  would be  plenty of  emperor  penguins  in Antarctica

A new study, based on satellite image tracking, shows that there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought:


University of Minnesota researchers have counted twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica as were previously estimated.
Doctoral student Michelle LaRue is perfecting techniques to enhance high-resolution satellite images to accurately counts Emperor Penguins — these are the penguins who sit on their eggs through the cold Antarctic winter, and were the stars of documentary, "The March of the Penguins."
LaRue's images were analyzed by the university's Polar Geospatial Center, which revealed that nearly 600,000 penguins live in Antarctica.   

Not surprisingly, the warmist researcher issued a warning about the influence of possible future global warming:

The biggest challenge for the penguins and seals is the loss of sea ice due to global warming, LaRue said. Scientists expect the population of emperor penguins to decline by half in the next 50-100 years because of global warming.


PS
Even if the emperors would decline by half in 50-100 years, they would still be as many as experts previously thought they are now!
      
(image by wikipedia)