In the next 50 years, some scientists now say, more than one-third of species will be “driven toward extinction.” The culprit will be global warming.

It’s in a study published today in the journal Nature. Earth will get warmer, species won't be able to adapt, and they will vanish. The scientists are in a tizzy about this goofy idea. They ignore, or are ignorant of, evidence that Earth's climate has always run in cycles, hotter, cooler, hotter, cooler... and they figure Man is pretty much to blame for global warming. Folks, species have been “driven toward extinction” all along.

Do you see as many horny toads in San Antonio as you did 20 or 30 years ago? Nope. Same for fireflies or lightning bugs. Same for those little suction-foot frogs that used to crawl on patio doors and windowpanes. Big red ants.

Things appear, they disappear. So it goes. But to fear that one in three species will be “driven toward extinction” within 50 years makes no sense.

I kind of suspect that within the past 50 years, a lot of common sense has been driven toward extinction.

Brad Messer— commentary, KTSA.

Washington Post 1/8/2004
Warming May Threaten 37% of Species by 2050

Nature magazine 1/8/2004
RESEARCH:Feeling the heat: Climate change and biodiversity loss

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