That Darn Climate Change Conspiracy, Ctd

Of course, climate change won’t be bad for all of Earth’s inhabitants. NewScientist (10 September 2016)  reports on a new habitat – for whales:

chukchi_sea

The original uploader was Mohonu at English Wikipedia.

Sue Moore at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle has analysed 30 years of whale survey information gathered in the Chukchi Sea – which separates Russia and Alaska – and the surrounding area. She realised that three species of plankton-eating baleen whales – humpback, fin and minke – are now routinely spotted in the region, even though surveys in the 1980s never encountered these species there.

The population of bowheads – a baleen whale native to the Arctic – may also be thriving, according to Moore’s analysis (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0251).

Speaking of ice clearing off, I recall that J. G. Ballard‘s The Drowned World is set on an Earth in which the Sun has increased its output enough to make Earth appreciably hotter. The ice caps are gone, the tropics are uninhabitable, and many life forms are reverting to earlier forms, presumably in a bid to adapt to the new ecological niches opening up. Mankind is drying up (if I may indulge in, what, an anti-pun?)….

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About Hue White

Former BBS operator; software engineer; cat lackey.

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