This is a bonus Climate Craziness of the Week. It seemed that while Climategate was raging, we saw an end to bizarre claims such as this. Now they seem to have resumed again as we saw in yesterday’s story claiming global warming causes more violence. What’s hilarious about this story is that is cites one environmental fear (AGW) and uses another even more feared solution (genetic modification) to save the flowers from AGW. This assumes they need saving. Reading the story, I wonder; maybe public transportation for the pollinators will help?
Excerpt From Asiaone News
Flowers Losing Scent Due to Climate Change
KUALA LUMPUR: A rose may stop smelling like a rose.
This is the concern of environmentalists as flowers are losing their scent due to climate change and air pollution. And their fragrance may be lost forever.
Science and Technology Professor Emeritus at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr Abdul Latif Mohamad, said genetically modified flowers might be the way out.
Climate change is also the reason Kuala Lumpur City Hall is increasingly turning to shady trees, because flowers which previously formed the centrepiece of its beautification programme have been wilting fast.
Datuk Bandar Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail said City Hall used to spend RM1.5 million ($635,100) a month to plant and maintain flowers in the city, but the contractor’s services were terminated in March last year.
City Hall has taken over the planting, opting for bou-gainvillea and the tropical shrubs, Ixora, for their durability and cheaper cost.
Under the previous arrangement, some of the small flowers cost RM3.50 per seedling.
“It was getting too costly to beautify the city. Flowers were dying fast,” he said, adding that City Hall would continue to plant shady trees more suited for soaking up the increasing pollution and coping with global warming.
Latif said UKM might have offered plausible reasons as to why some pollinators were not spreading flower seeds, a pattern caused by the missing “scent trail” with scent tissues burning easily due to global warming.
“The aroma producing chemical compounds in flowers dry up faster now compared with before.”
The only way out, he said, was to genetically modify the flowers so that the effects would not be permanent and the future generation would not be robbed of nature’s beauty.
“The act is almost like producing essential oils. Scientists add on certain chemicals for stronger scent.”
He said scents in flowers last longer in colder climate as plants can hold on to their essential oils longer.
“The flowers may still have strong scents in colder climate. But locally, we fear this might be lost forever.”
With flowers emitting lesser scent, the insects and butterflies are travelling further and longer to get a share of nectar.
Latif said birds and insects were heading towards hilly areas and deeper into the jungles where the weather is cooler.
He related an incident in Sungai Siput, Perak, where the farmers failed to get fruits from their orchards.
Upon investigation, Latif’s team discovered that the flowers were no longer pollinating after dust from a hill blast blocked the growth of stigmas.
He said Malaysians could no longer rely on nature to heal itself without the help of science.
…
Read the whole mess at Asiaone News
===============================
Commenter John in GA who made the tip writes:
Note that there’s no mention of any application of that “scientific method” thing — some professor at a Malaysian university simply declared it to be true, and so verily it is. Look for this new AGW “fact” to appear in your kids’ textbooks next year.
The article also states that Kuala Lumpur has had to take somewhat drastic measures, eliminating the planting of flowers in public areas because they were “dying too fast”. In fact, he says, “The aroma producing chemical compounds in flowers dry up faster now compared with before.” Really? When was “before”? A hundred years ago? Two months ago? And how did he establish that chemical compounds are drying up faster due to warming? With a controlled experiment? No mention of that. If his scientific method follows the Gore/IPCC model, it probably went something like this: “Hmm, flowers aren’t doing so well. Couldn’t be soil quality, amount of water, quality of seed stock, or anything like that. No, the only plausible explanation is that the planet is getting hotter, because if there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that tropical flowers don’t like warmth. And we know that global warming is caused by CO2 emissions. Therefore, man-made global warming is killing off flowers, and with them, birds, bees, and farmers. Call the press.”
Then there’s this:
“Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Mahmod said recently the extreme weather change might affect the life span of trees as a result of lighter or heavier rain.
‘We should look at how trees can be mutated so that they will not be destroyed.'”
I love it — straight from whimsical hypothesis to policy recommendation! No need to bother with troublesome experiments or any of that stuff. In the brave new world of AGW, it goes like this: “Hey, it might be possible that changes in temperature will cause changes in rainfall, and if that happens, then perhaps that would adversely affect trees. Let’s start genetically mutating trees to compensate.”
“OK, but you said that AGW might cause *more* or *less* rainfall. Which condition should we try to genetically adjust for?”
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Thanks for the heads-up; we need to keep people aware of the unscientific twaddle that’s being peddled in their name and probably with their money. I think this one comes from the urban myth that “flowers don’t smell like they used to” that’s been said for generations, and is probably more due to a decline in olfactory abilities as one grows older than anything else.
The psychopaths are making false claims with rapidity. It seems the surge in false claims is so that it takes time to disprove them and the propoganda value has already been measured.
The robust false claims can often be refuted with common sense. Do seeds for flowers ordered from the Burpee catalog give less scent if they are planted in Michigan than Indiana? We are talking a 5 degree difference in daytime highs and nightime lows.
Since corn yields are higher than 3 decades ago, have bees become more altruistic knowing the corn is being raised for ethanol and saving dirty petrol?
This is the final straw. A rose not smelling like a rose is the perfect excuse to penalise mankind and impose an authoritarian regime and rationing on them!
I’m running out of words with which to express my incredulity.
That being said, I’m wondering how Dr.Mohamed measured the decline in flower scent. Were there any objective parameters that he measured? Did he even conduct a survey?
I ask this because I think I know what he’s experiencing, and global warming ain’t to blame. I once spent a period one summer house-sitting in a rather nice part of Toronto, where the pleasure of the peaceful neighbourhood was marred by sewer gases. Since I lived downtown in that period, I was delighted by the shade and gardens, but was distressed to find that I could not detect scent in a single flower I sniffed (and I sniffed quite a few as I could not believe what I was experiencing.) I crossed this neighbourhood near High Park off my future desirable places to live (not that I could even now afford to live there) as a consequence. I’ve no problem smelling the flowers in the much humbler east end area where I now live.
I suspect that the good Dr. Mohamed’s sense of smell is suffering from a similar sensory overload from other less desirable sources.
You can’t make this stuff up. Un-frackin-lievable.
“OK, but you said that AGW might cause *more* or *less* rainfall. Which condition should we try to genetically adjust for?”
I have the solution! The answer is niether! Just smooth away any great swings in climate temperatures by using CLH and CSH:
Patterned after “Daylight Saving Time,” CLH stands for “Climate Losing Heat,” which is designed to make us feel cooler during warming periods by sliding our thermometer bulbs downward. Conversely during cooling periods, “Climate Saving Heat” will make us feel warmer by sliding them upwards. This should fit right in with the philosophy of the AGWers, as this is what they already do with historical records.
Just google for Rajendra Pachauri and Dr Abdul Latif Mohamad, and SURPRISE! , both are “Travel companions”:
http://www.iisd.ca/climate/rccwg7/enbots/pdf/enbots1273e.pdf
Whats in a name ? That which we call a rose, By any other name would small as sweet.
Juliet:.. Romeo & Juliet.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,
so this one would, were it not for the damned Global Warming”
One of the foundations of AGW theory is an expanding tropics. If so, we should see the range of fragrant tropical flowers increase.
Next time you get off a plane in Barrow, AK you may be greeted with a Lei made of local orchids. Right before you go snorkeling in the Arctic coral reef.
Utter crap of an article. I read an article many years ago about the genetic inverse interrelationship between bloom size and perfume strength in roses. The roses that were bred for fabulous blooms lost their perfume.
How about a new cause? Mana-Made Flower Perfume Loss? At least that one is real.
The roses in my front yard smell AWESOME! Maybe I should start selling them on e-bay as rare and immune to Global Warming. I could make a fortune!
Texas wildflowers always smell strongest on the warmest days. Nothing like a warm breezy day when the Bluebonnets are in bloom.
I like the comments John in Ga made. Could soil quality play a part? Maybe spread some of the fertilizer this article is written from and spread it in the gardens?
It is getting weirder and weirder.
I think we should adopt this way of thinking:
It seems AGW is causing more and more serious and settled people (mainly scientists) to lose their marbles and start spewing nonsense to the press.
Maybe genetically modified scientists are the answer to that.
And then there’s this article
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/will-roses-smell-sweeter-in-warming-world.php
I’m so confused. Which is it?
Not to mention that they add artificial smells to roses because the smell rarely survives transport in the cut flowers.
Of course the article is about flowers in general, not roses. It’s just a misleading title. 🙂
Well, they can always plant the CRU voodoo lily. I am told the scent is most strong when it flowers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus
“He related an incident in Sungai Siput, Perak, where the farmers failed to get fruits from their orchards.
Upon investigation, Latif’s team discovered that the flowers were no longer pollinating after dust from a hill blast blocked the growth of stigmas.
He said Malaysians could no longer rely on nature to heal itself without the help of science.”
So the trees flowers where covered/damaged by excessive dust which prevented proper pollination. First, what does this have to do with global warming. Second the dust could have just as easily come from a volcano or dust storm, both of which have been around longer than people and plants and trees seemed to have survived just fine.
Quick! – give that man a big research grant.
…but come to think of it, I’m sure the water we’re getting these days isn’t as wet as it used to be.
Datuk Bandar Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail said (bold mine):
Now, you don’t suppose…
“OK, but you said that AGW might cause *more* or *less* rainfall. Which condition should we try to genetically adjust for?”
Obviously both. You just aren’t thinking very clearly. 🙂
A ruse by any other name would smell as foul. With apologies to the Bard.
Nice that he mixes the two, Global Warming & Pollution. That way you can’t be sure which is causing the ‘problem’.
I’m sure that the warm winter experienced in Canada this year because of El Nino effects has somehow magically affected the pollination of Malaysian flowers, it ‘s some kind of ‘Butterfly effect’ perversion.
C’mon guys, the alarmists are getting frustrated that every time they try to deke out the public we point out the line they’ve crossed. How can their agenda make any progress like that?
My prediction is that they’re working out new strategies to “hide the deke line”.
Policemen seem to be getting smaller too.
There is a pattern. It seems the greenie weenies are urban dwellers. They are in basement bunkers without windows and google with wild abandon and create all these notions. They know the flowers are wilting and they of course never look at them and see the budget for planting didn’t include a person to water the plants.
All the greenie weenies have such fine intentions and real people that grow food and flowers lean on the greenie urban wackos for how to instructions.
The middle east is the experiment. The people were less angry and did less harm years ago when the Saudi Peninsula was full of tulips and flowers. Look what we did. We drove cars the turned Northern Africa into the Sahara desert.