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Originally Posted by Bullseye  Can anyone honestly say they've noticed an overall trend in the climate getting warmer ?. |
Yes - nature has noticed. All around the world there is a clear and unmistakable signal of warm-adapted species moving away from the tropics and into higher latitudes. From the African Cranes that now breed in Norfolk, to the Broad-bodied Chasers that were found only as far north as yorkshire in 1990 and now breed in the scottish borders. In every continent in the world naturalists report species after species moving into areas they have never been found before. In my childhood the Southern Hawker was only found as far north as nottingham - now it's in Aberdeen. And we've added a new species of dragonfly to the uk list every two years since 1990.
At the same time cold-adapted species are dying out in their lower latitudes. The white-faced darter has gone from staffs, only just clings on in cheshire and only really now thrives in scotland. Species of butterflies which are adapted to colder mountain-tops have been recorded moving higher up the mountains - with some species in Spain completely disappearing as they literally ran out of mountain.
The trends are universal, in both hemispheres. You either have to conclude that every species in earth has spontainiously decided to move range or that global warming is happening exactly as predicted by science.