God is great, frogs are good and (some) scientists are nuts

Remember the Great Frog Scare? Science blogger Anthony Watts (Watts Up With That?) has analyzed the reported decline in frogs attributed to various causes: the coal industry, farm practices and of course eventually global warming. Al Gore, a financier of the global warming empire, was only too happy to use the frog figure in presentations about his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ We now know (thanks to a judge in the United Kingdom) Gore’s film had quite a few inconvenient untruths. As it turns out, that frog scare has a few as well.

Tree frogs are common in NE Florida. This fellow glued himself to the top rung of our patio table umbrella. He was extremely uncooperative about having his photograph made.Watts gives us good news in his post ‘What frog science can teach us about global warming.’ He writes about the dip in frog numbers, “[N]ew research has now pretty definitively linked an infection of the chytrid fungus to declines, and even local extinctions, of frog and toad species around the world.”

Perhaps the most intriguing possibility Watts notes is the transmission of the fungus by scientists who “traipsed through the woods and rainforests to study the frogs.”

As an aside, Watts is one of the most gifted writers in all of science. The frog post is a classic and his readers’ comments are classics as well, addressing such matters as the “hoppy” news about the frog rebound.

The big news we can croak about is that populations appear to be rebounding and there are possibilities the frogs are developing resistance to the fungus.

In August there was even good news about the rare Northern Leopard frog. The Gazette (Colorado) reported, “A frog that hasn't been seen at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in more than 40 years has returned…”

Considering the billions of dollars, many of them provided by US taxpayers, rolled into trying to prove the theory of manmade global warming, the great frog scare is another chapter in the history of political science.

For those of us who understand the wisdom of conservation and the benefits of ‘going green’ (actually a nod to our grandmothers’ ‘waste not, want not’ principle), global warming alarmism is actually viewed as harmful to the environment. For one thing, the current global political approach suggests it’s fine to clear out all those forested areas and wreck habitat—as long as you plant some species of fast growing trees. And by doing so, America and other developed nations will be happy to pay you.

This morning in Northeast Florida the temperature was in the low 20s. At 7 a.m. it felt like the world outside was one giant popsicle. We usually don’t have a cold snap like this until January.

Segue to the progressive blog Climate Progress. A post on May 5, 2010, noted energy-related CO2 emissions had declined nearly 10 percent from 2005 levels. The prog writer of course wanted them to decline even more.

So if carbon emissions theoretically made the Earth warmer, has reducing them led to my digging out my winter coat earlier and for longer periods here in NE Florida? Probably not, but prog scientists won’t even consider the possibility they’ve addressed the wrong issue in approaches to conservation—too much grant money is at stake. That’s funded by US taxpayers too.

As we absorb the frog news, let us not forget a new study suggesting some increased ocean acidity may be increased by (the horror!) perfectly natural causes. An article at PhysOrg disclosed, "A North Carolina State University researcher is part of a team which has found that methane from “cold seeps” – undersea areas where fluids bubble up through sediments at the bottom of the ocean – could be contributing to the oceans’ increasing acidity and stressing already delicate undersea ecosystems."

Frogs are on the rebound—God is indeed great. Green is most definitely good. Utility rates are skyrocketing as President Barack Obama hoped.

And some scientists really are nuts—a product, perhaps of Global Warming Derangement Grant Syndrome.

Related Articles of Interest

35 Inconvenient Truths (The Errors in Al Gore's Movie)
Science and Public Policy Institute

Jumping to conclusions: Frogs, global warming and 'Nature'
On theories about frog population declines; World Climate Report

More than 1,000 scientists dissent...manmade global warming
Climate Depot

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Dec. 14, 2010)