I recall one summer when I was a boy in the 1960’s where we had a tent caterpillar outbreak in our town. Global Warming wasn’t on anybody’s mind then. This story is from the Independent in the UK.
Caterpillar plague on Isle of Wight was caused by climate change, says expert
By Ben Mitchell
Saturday, 15 May 2010 Global warming was blamed yesterday for an increase in caterpillar infestations which can cause severe allergic reactions.
In the latest outbreak, residents of a street in Newport, Isle of Wight, were forced to stay indoors or wear protective body-suits and face-masks to avoid coming into contact with tiny hairs shed by the brown-tail moth caterpillars. The insects have set up home in an isolated and overgrown plot next to gardens in the street. Steve Gardner, who has been dealing with the infestation in West Street, said: “In general, these insects are getting worse in this country because the climate is changing and the summers are getting warmer.
Normally, these insects settle in fields where they do not do anyone any harm but if they are close to houses they travel from garden to garden causing problems. As the caterpillar grows it sheds its skin and the tiny hairs float in the air and can cause a severe skin reaction.”
The insect, which has a dotted white line down each side and two very distinctive red dots on the back of its tail, emerges from its nest as the weather gets warmer in May and June.
The easiest time to get rid of them is during winter when their tent-like nests are visible. Mr Gardner said he would return in the autumn to remove the nests. Residents have been told to use calamine lotion or contact a doctor that if a rash develops.
So what about the Ten Plagues of Egypt? They affected an area slightly bigger than a street in a town on the the Isle of Wight, and how long ago? How would the ancient Egyptians have responded to a plague of catterpillars in a street in Cairo and would such a story have made it into the bible?
Who ARE these “experts” who keep popping up with these ludicrous statements?
Aren’t we all getting a bit tired of this nonsense? I know I am. They must realise that their pronouncements now largely fall on deaf ears, why are they so keen to make themselves look stupid? Is there an unwritten creed amongst climate “scientists” that every perceived change in just about anything has to be caused by climate change, and inevitably it’s the fault of mankind? Climate is climate as far as I’m concerned, and all the more fascinating BECAUSE it changes, but can’t they all accept, just for once, that changes are beneficial as well, and not the precursors to Armageddon? I mean, thank goodness the earth warmed sufficiently to exit each ice age.
Caterpillars! What next?
Grey hair?
Wrinkles?
Aging?
Bigger hangovers?
Bad breath?
Sweaty armpits?
I guess the list could be infinite.
Steve didn’t get the memo, that climate change causes species extinction.
Show that idiot the CET record, where the top red line is summer temperature.
http://www.climate4you.com/CentralEnglandTemperatureSince1659.htm
The expert in this article totally misses the fact that we have shifted daylight savings time by 3 weeks, giving these critters an extra hour of sunlight much earlier in thier short life cycle! (smile).
Global warming causes mass delusions among humans – er – or should that be the other way round?
Mass delusion among humans causes Global Warming which causes caterpillars?
Is there a natural Predator of these Moths?
If so then harsh winters and cooler Summers will probably make them less active and that would also lead to more Moths & Caterpillars.
I have ladybug problems in may area.
It must be global warming.
Okay, where’s my grant money!
I’ll make sure to neglect the problem with them was worse 3 years ago.
“were forced to stay indoors or wear protective body-suits and face-masks to avoid coming into contact with tiny hairs shed by the brown-tail moth caterpillars”
Que?, I played with these little fellas when I was a kid
why don’t thay rescue the polar bears and have them eat up the caterpillars
This has to be a hoax right? haven’t you noticed? Caterpillars in GARDENS reported by Mr GARDNER
Next we’ll have Proff Harry Trout researching fish species, Dr James Bird on birds
Proff Peter RAMsay on sheep flatulations etc
Love the photo by the way
They are merely loitering with intent caterpillars.
Someone needs to do a study to determine if the the caterpillars are growing longer denser hair coats to adapt to the present cooling conditions. The longer hairs may float further and be more widespread by the wind, thus more contact for humans.
OMG! Does that mean BUTTERFLIES will follow? NOOOO! WERE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
At least local “expert” Steve Gardner, (henceforth to be known as “the village idiot”) prefaced his statement with “in general”, as in; in general, Alarmist psuedoscientists are morons.
Yesterday, I watched a few minutes of that block buster film “The Swarm”. About killer bees. Remember Killer bees? As a young child I actually had nightmares about killer bees. There. I said killer bees three times there. four if you count that last mention of killer bees. (or is that bee’s) … Turns out my killer bees nightmares were for naught. I actually had more to fear from science than killer bees. Who’d a thunk it? (or is that whod?) Man, I should start fearing spell check!
Killer bees 1. Perspicacity nil.
I wanna see the pix of the plague of locusts.
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Given the photo accompanying this post, it’s no wonder they’re upset about all of the Caterpillars in their gardens, not to mention any in the trees ;o)
I think they have it backwards, though. The Caterpillars of various species (makes and models) in the photo are certainly the cause of local warming; increased UHI due to albedo changes. Can anyone muster an argument against that?
George Turner:
Yes, Bacillus thuringiensis works very well for mosquito control. You can even spray it from a helicopter, since the poison affects an enzyme system that does not exist in vertebrates. It is a gene from this bacterium that is used to make corn immune from corn-borers.
All the good species are disappearing because of global warming and all the bad ones have outbreaks. God must hate global warming.
“Giving it back to Ban Ki-moon
Rex Murphy, National Post
His Eminence, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, seems like a nice guy. This week, he was in Ottawa, and apparently chastised the Canadian government, more particularly Stephen Harper, for Canada’s shameless failure to meet its carbon-reduction obligations under the Kyoto protocol.
Then again, this is what we expect Mr. Ban to do. He is, after all, the highest functionary of the world’s most useless transnational organization, and sermonizing is mainly what its Secretary-General does. But I surely hope–within the bounds of diplomatic courtesy, of course– that Mr. Harper paid no attention to him. Or rather, since an air of candour seems to have prevailed at their tete-a-tete, Mr. Harper, as it were, returned serve.
For example, did Mr. Harper press him on the matter of Climategate and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? Did he call to the Secretary-General’s attention the serial distortions, errors, non-peer-reviewed citations, the wholesale liftings from WWF and Greenpeace propaganda that made their way into the most recent IPCC report?
Little matters such as false claims on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers?
Did he bring up the serial mischiefs of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, as revealed by their leaked emails? The CRU is the very Nicene Council of the Church of Global Warming, where the high priests of dendrology meld graphs with the cardinals of atmospheric physics. What a knotty tale their intramural communications revealed — of jealousy that “their” science was being confuted and challenged by annoying outsiders; and, most of all, of attempts to keep the Holy of Holies — the process of peer review–within the closed circuit of their colleagues and admirers.
Did he take Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to task for the bristling ardency — so alien to any genuine scientific project — that now pervades the “global warming community”? Or, for the spiteful defiance of Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the UN’s IPCC chairman, toward those who reported errors in his venerated report, or to the hints of potential conflicts of interest between Mr. Pachauri’s business enterprises and his position as the voice of the “international community” on the “greatest moral issue of our time”?
For if Mr. Ban chastised Stephen Harper for Canada’s failings on Kyoto, it is but cricket for Mr. Harper to chastise Ban Ki-moon for the sloppiness, evasion and propagandistic aggressiveness of his functionaries on their most beloved file.
Did the conversation ever get round, I wonder, to our Prime Minister telling the UN’s Secretary-General that perhaps, since Kyoto, confidence in the UN’s version of the science, and in the ferocious, nay apocalyptic, projections from that science, has considerably declined? I would surely hope so.
For Canada signed Kyoto in a more innocent day, when few, or none, had either occasion or evidence to question the impartiality of those who were pushing a carbon Doomsday on the rest of us. Since that innocent day, much has changed. Advocacy has seduced science, and the loud voices of all-too-interested parties are crying up cap-and-trade schemes and “reparations” to developing countries from “climate criminals.” Western governments are being harried to vest vast sums into “alternate technologies” of little proven efficacy but of prodigiously proven cost. The West is being asked to handcuff its own growth and development, in the midst of a global recession, all under the banner of global warming.” (more)
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=3030855
It’s pretty sad when they can’t even get their scaremongering right. Now, if this twit had said that increased CO2 causes increased food supply, he might have had something.
Al Gore’s Weather (AGW) : CRUed Again?
…-
“Volcanic ash threatens to close British airspace – again”
“Britain’s Department for Transport says there is a risk that parts of British airspace could be closed beginning Sunday as the volcanic eruption in Iceland continues.
The transport ministry said possible closures could continue through Tuesday. The predictions are based on the continuing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul volcano and curent wind and weather conditions. ”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/volcanic-ash-threatens-to-close-british-airspace—again/article1570088/
Humans have a strong need to explain why things are the way they are. If we can explain why things are the way they are, then we can do something about it in our favor.
In the distant past, we would say the Gods are not happy with us, the witches are casting spells; lately its been Gaia is getting back at us for our ways or global warming is causing it.
That’s why we invented Science. So we can actually figure out why things are the way they are. If we can determine the actual (versus mythical) cause of something, we have a much better chance of changing it in our favor. (Hence, bacillus thuringiensis and insecticides).
But Global Warming Science is an interesting mix between modern science and our past myth-making ways.
Excellent link, maz2, thanks for posting. Fun reading.