“Thousands of dead crabs have washed up along the Kent coast, with environmental experts believing the cold weather in Britain is to blame,” London’s Daily Mail reports. In an MSNBC/LiveScience report, we get the simple explanation. ’tis the snowfall on the beach that melted wot dun it:
“It’s been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row,” Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience.
The crabs come closer to shore at this time of year, Child said, where they feed on the seaweed. In the past, environmental scientists ran tests to check for disease or other physiological problems with the crabs, coming up empty-handed. But Child said every year the die-offs have occurred after there was snow on the beaches. The meltwater causes temperatures near shore to drop, and Child said the deaths must be linked to hypothermia.
Now, get load of this quote from another person in the Daily Mail Article:
“Coastal warden Tony Sykes said: ‘We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.”
Warden, what are you smoking dude? Have a look at the SST’s for Britain, what were they doing, swimming towards Spain?
Note the colors around the southeast part of the U.K. – barely above freezing SST’s.
Source: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/sst/fields/FS_km5000.gif
Note the quote:
It’s been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row,” Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience.
Hmmm….now what could possibly have happened in the UK during the last three winters? BBQ Summers?
Here’s the press release from the Thanet Coast Project:
Marine wildlife hit by cold weather
Around 25,000 velvet swimming crabs and marine wildlife have become the latest victim of the recent cold weather in Thanet.
Volunteer coastal wardens from the Thanet Coast Project have surveyed the coastline and reported hundreds of dead creatures washed up on the shore. Casualties have been reported from the Nayland Rock, Margate and in bays to the Kingsgate area, with further sightings between Dumpton and Ramsgate. The discovery was made following the Christmas period, following on from the recent heavy snow falls.
So this claim from coastal warden Sykes isn’t the same ridiculous claim we’ve been hearing lately, that global warming causes cold weather. Nooo… the problem here seems to be that the crabs made the mistake of believing in global warming.
Here’s the link to the Daily Mail story with the quote.
H/T to Mark Duchamp for the email.
These fools seem to find a way to blame everything on this “global warming” despite the fact that there has been no documented warming for several years now.
Well said Anthony. It is always doom Doom DOOM with them. There can be no natural cycles, or responses to those cycles. I would not be surprised if this same phenomenon used to feed villagers in the dead of winter, when the first snow would hit the beaches. That knowledge has probably been lost do to urbanization. I find it ironic that it is the city urban dwellers who have the highest attachment to CAGW. Hmmm
Here’s what should be done with crabs:
So, the “22” is Tony Sykes IQ?
[Now, now. Do not make unwarranted, un-researched assumptions …. 8<) Robt]
Now, lemme’ get this straight, Anthony…
Are these warmists gonna next be stumping for ‘crabby psychitrists’…?
You know – watching Lemmings ‘leap’ used to terrify me as a kid, but – now, I jus’ see them as tiny little ‘greenies’ and somehow – miraculously – without drugs or other ‘intervention’ my phobia has been completely cured and I can smile, once more.
C.L. Thorpe
Once again they are exchanging terms of “climate change” (cooling) with “AGW”.
Only people with intelligence disabilities would believe that cold water was AGW warmed when the crabs approached. Three years in a row. And these are supposed to be “scientific” observations? When are the actual scientists on the AGW gravy train going to wise up that they are being duped and used to promote a political, not a scientific point. I suppose that one could allude to political science, but even that is rooted in a political reality and not to be confused with a scientific reality based upon observation. Cold is cold. They didn’t die from warmth.
It looks like Global Warming is freezing species to death,
Thousands of salmon killed at Bushmills research centre (BBC, December 26, 2010)
Cold weather leads to 767 manatee deaths in 2010 (Miami Herald, January 5, 2011)
Maryland’s 2 million dead fish caused by cold water (Reuters, January 6, 2011)
It seems like a pretty good metaphor for britain’s climate policy: Believe in global warming, swim towards those warming waters(green tech) and freeze in the surf.
Sadly, this is yet more evidence that there is a very real disconnect between science and reality. Globull warming is just the tip of the iceberg. I dont include “economics” in the term science.
It looks as if they just pick words out of a dictionary and then add the phrase global warming or climate change or climate disruption or witchcraft to it and then print it. Perhaps what we really face is black magic.
“Nooo… the problem here seems to be that the crabs made the mistake of believing in global warming.”
I would be a lot happier if the same fate was befalling the so called homo sapiens sapiens who fall for this scam,and particulary the ones who keep perpetrating it and stealing money from it!
“Cold is cold. They didn’t die from warmth.”
Ah, but you see – they did die from warmer cold weather.
Over the past 30 years of 1/2 of one degree warming, “only” those which bred and got used to warmer weather survived to breed again, and so now the “entire” crab population “must” live in warmer waters and hotter climates and so they are faced with catastrophic danger by the past 3 years of colder winters – which the weather service and Hansen’s GISS maintain did not happen.
As a result the crabs are “forced” to go ashore to seek their new, mandatory hotter climates but they are now being DESTROYED and MURDERED by the callas and inhumane human-caused extra snow and ice on shore – which had never been there the previous 30 years/300 years/3000 years/30,000 years of southwest UK …
It is so cold even human intervention cannot save them,
Zoo loses precious birds to cold (The Times of India, January 6, 2011)
If only we produce more CO2 these birds would have been saved!
“…physiological problems with the crabs”
yeah, they walk funny!
Read this
http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Weather.pdf
and you will know 100%, without a doubt, that these are NOT, repeat NOT scientists. Scientists look at all facts, present and past. You think this is cold, you’ve not seen anything yet.
“We suspect that climate change…”
Sheesh! These people have CAGW on the brain! You know the saying, “when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”
I never could tell them from Whizo Butter! (Probably because of Global Warming…)
Sadly this is no longer about truth, but about politics. And politics has always been about persuading “the masses” who don’t really care enough to investigate beyond the headlines.
A catchy phrase, a compelling photo, a good story.
Fortunately the spin doctors of “climate change” are now shooting themselves in the foot, as they assume that people not only are too lazy to investigate, but also too lazy to think.
How cold is it?
I love the way you post a “Climate Craziness of the week” thread only for it to become completely redundant a mere six hours later…..
Well. I had posited in an earlier thread that the recent biologic exterminations were caused by global cooling, and I think it will prove true. The 10 year build up of biomass may be at at end. This is not a sign of warming, it is a sign of cooling. Warming can no more cause cooling then vice versa. We need the names of the idiots that suggest such so they can be sent to the home with their grants and privileges awarded to the industries and people who died because of this fraud.
PS: h/t to Konrad on that link yn the tips & notes thread at:
Konrad says:
December 22, 2010 at 2:28 pm
http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Weather.pdf
He’s right, read some of it, fascinating what the past holds climatologists never mention.
The Cambodian crab video is very funny. The crabs are almost completely dead when they are getting cleaned.
If we were not being hijacked with over bloated tax bills and extra ‘eco-greenie’ fees on everyday purchases, it’d almost be funny. Lunatics, the lot of them.
Just wondering… if they are cold or frozen wouldn’t they still be good to process to be consumed by other domesticated animals? Bet pigs would eat them up and likely good for them too.
“rotten ice”! now it’s “sudden snow”. and it’s just “weather”…..
8 Jan: UK Sun: Alastair Taylor: Snow is back as UK gets 5 inches
But Met Office experts said it was NOT going to a return to the “big freeze” of last month and the sudden snow would “vanish as quickly as it arrived”….
Helen Chivers, forecaster at the Met Office, said: “Really, it’s just normal wintry weather we’ve got over the next few days. As we go into next week, it’s going to be very much milder.” …
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3336304/Snow-is-back-as-UK-gets-5-inches.html
The real problem is not the fools; the problem is that nobody ever confronts the fools face-to-face. Nobody looked at Sykes in open-mouthed astonishment and asked him directly: “HUH????? Do you realize what you just said????”
“Coastal warden Tony Sykes said: ‘We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.”
Yes, the Global Warming Siren lured them:
Come hither Crabs, come to your death!
Obviously Anthony, you’re not familiar with the devious nature of this heat generated cold. Of course it tricked the crabs! Its been baiting them for some time! Always just hanging there, appearing all warm and stuff and then whammo!! it suddenly turns cold on the poor crabs! This is a relatively new phenomenon. A Dr. Syme from the department of lexicography has termed it warmcold. We can expect a paper from him soon. The Ministry of Plenty is quite anxious to get to the bottom of this, but all outward appearances indicate this monstrous warmcold is indeed a product of global warming (of the cooling sort).
I’m going to break away from the rest and agree that Global Warming is to blame for a lot of things.
For instance, I blame Global Warming for the existence of WUWT.
I blame Global Warming for my blogging habits.
Oh sweet relief! I’ve been in China for five weeks (mix of business and pleasure) but discovered to my horror (did you offend the Party, Anthony?) that I was unable to access WUWT. Just back, this story was a wonderful way to begin my rehabilitation!
Somebody, anybody explain why snow that falls on beaches is deadly but snow that falls in the ocean is not. And what about all the times rain that is nearly at freezing falls in the ocean or lands on the beaches?
This is what happens when you watch too much Monty Python.
What boggles the mind is the blatant misrepresentation that this species of crab (or any species of any kind ) has never encountered hardship or “die back” in it’s entire existence. The idea that this is “all new” is ludicrous. The past was not static. They love nature but completely misunderstand it. I think I have more respect for nature than that. The article is another example of shootinfooticus selfinflicticus. Road Runner reference !!
The climate that is constantly changing has always been responsible for mass die offs of species through out the ages. This is nothing new.
Compliments to Mr. Sexton. You made me laugh until my eyes watered.
But I do think you’re on to something with this evil warmcold phenomenon, and I do hope you’re right about a paper coming out very soon, commissioned by the Ministry of Plenty. Warmcold is the wave of the future, hot and cool…and that is really most unprecidentedly ominous. It’s never happened in the entire lifetime record of recorded history. And just try and check the time before! The planet will lose every time warmcold raises its ugly head. Ice cubes will melt, hot coffee will freeze. When you enjoy a hot fudge sundae, the ice cream will go warm and the fudge cold…you get the idea. But if only there was a way to make money off of this warmcold…perhaps there is…with clothing! We could make coats with fur lining and no sleeves! And bathing suits made of wool! Say, now that’s a green idea…
Stay cool, my friend. But whatever you do, stay away from warmcold.
Burning fossil fuels produces H2O that makes the ocean levels rise and causes more floods. We must ban the burning of fossil fuels. Just look at the Australia floods.
That makes as much sense as regulating it because it produces plant food(CO2).
In PNS, (after real science) cold is warm. To consume wealth is to create wealth, Truth is not important, If you wish it, it will be. Poor dears, they are too feeble minded to do real science, so they just make it up as they go along.
“The science of AGW is for the feeble minded.” pg
co2insanity says: January 7, 2011 at 8:00 pm
So, the “22″ is Tony Sykes IQ?
[Now, now. Do not make unwarranted, un-researched assumptions …. 8<) Robt]
Not un-researched. That was a GISS homogenized value, using nearby warmist IQ’s for adjustment.
I don’t think this die off or any of the other in-vogue fish, bird, etc. die 0ffs are that unusual, it’s just that the press/blogosphere has just noticed and panicked. Move along, nothing to see here.
Michael says:
January 7, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Jinx!!!
I listened to a report about this on BBC Radio the other morning. Fortunately Tony Sykes wasn’t interviewed. He may have managed to get on air later in the day, knowing the BBC it may well have been them who found him in the first place.
So just how do we solve the problem of solar warming?.
So believing in Global Warming decreases your life expectancy. I suspected that much, thanks for the proof. 🙂
” jones says:
January 7, 2011 at 11:49 pm
So just how do we solve the problem of solar warming?.”
We first establish beyond doubt that Sol is warming the globe and that it is abnormal for the context.
We’ve done neither.
Correlation is not causation. This faith in AGW stalking the world is positively medieval.
They died because they were suckered into near shore waters by AGW and then caught out by cold melt into the sea from snowy beaches! Let’s try the witch trial test. If she floats drag her out because the water has rejected her ‘witch evil’ and burn her; if she sinks and drowns it proves her innocence and drag her out and give her a decent burial.
Collateral damage in the battle against the evil one.
I don’t think Rod Serling could have come up with a better story line than this where hot is cold and cold is hot. Wait a minute, I think he may have — it was a Twilight Zone episode staring Lois Nettleton called — “The Midnight Sun.” Are we now living in the Twilight Zone? Craaaaazy!!!!
Agh well if they are already frozen then easy to just go and pick em up n cook em
Having tried to talk to other people about this I have found that the issue is actually polarizing groups to more extremes. It seems very hard to have a rational discussion. The blinkers are pulled tighter and the abuse level has increased. I have apparently become a bigger idiot for doubting the “scientists”
I have a theory of how it must have happened.
Lured by those fiery red splotches on maps showing ocean temperatures, the crabs of England decided to take a much-needed winter holiday, forsaking our chilly seas and swimming en masse southwards to bask in the anomalies off West Antarctica.
Alas, there they met their doom. Parboiled by extreme water temperatures caused by man-made carbon emissions, and sorely weakened by ocean acidification caused by same, the hapless crustaceans turned around and exited this anthropogenic ocean hell, swimming back north in hopes of seeing their home waters again for the very last time.
And they did so, after a supreme effort which cost them their lives, expiring finally in their thousands on the beaches of dear old Blighty. So there you have it – it was Global Warming wot killed these magnificent beasts. QED.
Maybe if the Met Office had gone public about their colder winter forecast the crabs could have read about it and not come so far inshore?
Global warming causes most everything.
I’m waiting for spousal infidelity to be attributed to global warming. That’ll really complete the global warming equation.
I just had to post again. This has been going through my mind a lot…
Global Warming causes…
too much snow
too little snow
cold snaps
heat waves
tsunamis
earthquakes
floods
droughts
sea level change
windling polar bear population
dead birds falling from the sky
dead crabs on the beach
And when they tell us..
MAN CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING
do they really expct us to believe them after all the claims they’ve made?
Interestingly, this is the third year in a row, so evidently crabs breed like rabbits and their population is not suffering. Are they edible? Are there catch quotas? Maybe those should be increased to keep the numbers in check?
“One Anonymous Bloke says:
January 8, 2011 at 12:05 am
I’m confused. I’ve heard that you, Anthony Watts, are the most credible scientist in history, but you’re quoting “The Daily Mail” as though it’s a science journal. My understanding is that the Daily Mail could barely be described as a newspaper, let alone a reliable source. I can’t find a link to the original interview to verify the Daily Mail’s version of events, do you have one? Sorry if this is taking up your valuable”
The BBC has it, too!
Anthony, I saw a similar article about pigeons and wasn’t there something about red-wings or something in the US falling from the sky.
oooooaaaaaah! I see omens …
Didn’t I forewarn that the eclipse on the solstice foretold dark times ahead (it is winter!) and now the sun (partially) disappeared having been eaten by the moon and woooooo …. we’ve had yet strange white stuff falling from the sky in Scotland … and illness is all over the land (pig’s flu).
Goebbels would be proud of the Global Climate Crab Disruption.
The real cause was them escaping from the highly acidic sea.
Here in the British media they (Louise Grey) are blaming climate change for the spread of disease amongst oak trees.
“More are expected to be chopped down in the coming years because the warmer, wetter conditions expected with climate change encourage the spread of the disease. ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8247580/Sudden-death-for-thousands-of-trees.html
Anthony put all this madness under one heading so anyone can easily link to it in the future.
“So this claim from coastal warden Sykes isn’t the same ridiculous claim we’ve been hearing lately, that global warming causes cold weather. Nooo… the problem here seems to be that the crabs made the mistake of believing in global warming.”
Not being able to tell that you are freezing to death is a sure sign of hypothermia.
glad a couple of others also wonder why?? seeing as they would be near iced -people are not taking advantage of this and eating them , such waste to let them rot or to use them for fertiliser? at best? can’t have a messy beach can we…obsessively perfect is required by councils worldwide, some councils in WA (aus) have even banned kids toys on beaches, if this happened there they’d have fits:-)
[Confusus say, ‘Man who eat animal that die unnaturally early, die unnaturally early. 8<) Robt]
The fish and wildlife is dying all over the place from the cold caused by — drum roll please … global warming. In Florida the power plants are unable to heat the discharge water up enough to save the non-native species manatees … manatee deaths are now the highest ever this past 2010, not because of boats, buts because of the cold. Seems being at the max of their range means something when the cold fronts move through Cuba … sigh.
The Florida inshore game fish species cannot survive the cold either, I assume that global warming was luring these hapless fish into the shallows so they can die of the cold. Yep, it’s getting cold again, the water temperature is right at the ‘survive point’ and dropping.
Here’s a fascinating Google map with links to news sources listing DOZENS of mass animal deaths which have occurred worldwide in the past few weeks : http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201817256339889828327.0004991bca25af104a22b
Possible explanation is, that crabs had subscribed to MetOffice forecasts. So they were lured close to the coast by perspective of a warm winter – and then the climate change killed them!
Here is another video feature focusing on the natural wild life die-offs recently.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4488930/aflockalypse-now-animal-deaths-stump-officials/
Larry
Michael says:
“The climate that is constantly changing has always been responsible for mass die offs of species through out the ages. This is nothing new.”
So you’re saying natural climate variability explains it?☺
These mass strandings are not unusual during/after prolonged low sea temperatures and especially when combined with a day or two of strong onshore winds in winter. Even an onshore gale by itself in winter can cause spectacular mortalities of starfish, crabs, lobsters and other bottom-dwelling fauna. As a British marine shellfisheries biologist (now retired) I have seen beaches strewn with dead animals in North Wales and North Norfolk. The south-eastern coasts of England, from Norfolk to north Kent (Thanet), have the coldest sea surface temperatures in England, often around/below 5C and falling close to zero during exceptionally severe winters such as that of early 1963. That particular winter virtually killed off oyster and cockle fisheries in southern England and caused losses of intertidal and near-shore fauna as far west as southern Ireland.
Most edible crabs spend winter buried into the gravel and other sediments near to shore off Kent and eastern coasts. They become inactive for the winter. In very cold conditions they apparently are either killed in situ or are too torpid to prevent thenselves from being washed out by wave disturbances. The velvet swimming crabs are a more southerly species and, like other warmer-water fauna in southern England, cannot withstand very cold conditions.
These mass strandings are entirely natural and to be expected somewhere or other during the current winter. Such events are usually reported in the local press and fishery papers; and can stir the local TV media into momentary excitement if they can find local ‘experts’ to ascribe them to AGW or pollution.
Look – this is very serious.
If the IPCC says that the heat is killing the frogs.
Then yes, certainly.
Heat should be banned.
Oh! wait a moment.
Were you talking about CO2?
Now I’m not so sure.
We may need some CO2 later on (soft drinks and dry ice and so forth).
Oh you were talkng about cold were you?
Same thing!
Move along now.
Nothing to see.
Just a few snap frozen crabs waiting for the deep freezer.
I find it a little strange that I cannot recall seeing headlines like this back in 1963/64, a winter that this one has a long way to go before it even gets near the length and depths of, yet the crabs continue to thrive.
It’s obvious that global warming has become an intellectual crutch: why bother thinking something through scientifically, or even common-or-garden rationally, just blame in global warming – job done.
As a smalll boy I grew up on that coastline and when we had some pretty fierce winters too, not every year mind but some snow in Feb/Mar was normal: and the sea close inshore would freeze up here and there every few years.
I recall these die offs did occur back then and were sometimes reported in the local press in the odd paragraph but I don’t think the nationals ever bothered. Whereas if it was a hot summet Portuguese Man o’ War, a jellyfish, sometimes turned up from warmer southerly waters and the nationals usually reported that with dire warnings to swimmers.
But of course back then the only people inspecting the coastline regularly in winter were the county engineers responsible for the sea defences. There were casual beach users in winter from sea fishermen to ramblers and the like, not many though. Even us schoolboys did not take to the beaches until it was a lot warmer. Happy days.
But there were no wardens or such like to report these things back then, now there are and of course if they are paid to look they find. And think it some new discovery rather than something which has been going on for decades or centuries.
Bit like everything to do with the greenyweenies movement really, it can’t have been happening long before they noticed it, it has to be some new catastrophe and a man made one at that.
Kindest Regards.
we had a similar even occur in South Carolina last week.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/01/06/Major-fish-kill-reported-in-S-Carolina/UPI-48711294351800/
thankfully the term AGW is rarely used in the South, most of that live here enjoy warm weather
maybe he’s saying that the crabs have arrived or moved closer in on the shoreline as the UK has got warmer (climate change) and that they weren’t prepared for the cold winters in the past few years.
In the weather is not climate column.
Thanks goodness that we don’t have crabs in Atlanta. We would be expecting a big kill this week. Time to run out for TP, milk, and bread for our rare toilet paper and milk sandwiches. 4-5″ with isolated 9″ is the prediction of the moment – it will change. I do wonder if the freshwater melt did not contribute to the problem. Some marine species are not very tolerant 0f water quality change, while others are far more tolerant than given credit.
Once again, I must ask, What bad thing isn’t the result of humankind? If it is too hot, we are at fault. If it is too cold, we are at fault. If it is too dry, we are at fault. If it is too wet, we are at fault. If there is a fish kill, we are at fault. If there is a wildfire, we are at fault. Please, somebody, name one bad thing that the modern scientists don’t try to blame people on other than events from outer space.
I think it would be a good idea for somebody to do a study on modern science. The way I would do it is to publish a bogus study about some adverse event and how it can be blamed on climate change. The bogus study has to look like the real thing. But the true study must be to see if the peer-review process discredits the bogus study or just lets it pass because it follow the orthodoxy. The true study will also see if liberal newspapers pick up the story and feature it. Once sufficient time has passed, then release the true study and show all the problems with modern climate science. Obviously, whoever does this study will be vilified and hated by the scientific community for turning on their own. But sometimes a sacrifice is needed to save us.
[Confusus say, ‘Man who eat animal that die unnaturally early, die unnaturally early. 8<) Robt]
Freezing to death is not dying unnaturally early. It is one of the most natural deaths there is.
However Confucius’s prohibition doesn’t seem to apply when a deer has its heart ventilated by a rather unnatural .308 – I find that curious personally.
I bet if anyone looked at the old local papers for the area (Margate say) in a year that was known to be cold in the early 20th c or even the 19th, there would be similar stories. Unfortunately society seems to have lost its ability to look to the past. thiings that were totally obvious to our forefathers are a total surprise to us.
So anyone living in Margate:
1) Find a few known heavy snowfall years in the past
2) Go to the library
3) Look at the Dec, Jan, Feb local papers for those years on microfilm
4) Dont be surprised to find stories almost identical to this
Duncan
Well, of course, anything can be blamed on ‘climate disruption’. That’s the beauty of the phrase, isn’t it?
@One Anonymous Bloke
Not difficult to find other sources: quick Google.
The Mail probably lifted the story from the Kent paper.
Interestingly, the same thing seems to have happened two and five years ago.
(I hope the link works, it’s the first post I’ve tried here.)
LiveScience is terribly written junk journalism. The authors are uninformed and prone to agenda advancement. Ignore it as a source of information.
George says: January 8, 2011 at 5:24 am
In the weather is not climate column.
Thanks goodness that we don’t have crabs in Atlanta. We would be expecting a big kill this week. Time to run out for TP, milk, and bread for our rare toilet paper and milk sandwiches. 4-5″ with isolated 9″ is the prediction of the moment – it will change. I do wonder if the freshwater melt did not contribute to the problem. Some marine species are not very tolerant 0f water quality change, while others are far more tolerant than given credit.
The first thought thought that crossed my mind was the effect of fresh water on crabs.
Duncan says:
January 8, 2011 at 6:16 am
I bet if anyone looked at the old local papers for the area (Margate say) in a year that was known to be cold in the early 20th c or even the 19th, there would be similar stories. Unfortunately society seems to have lost its ability to look to the past. thiings that were totally obvious to our forefathers are a total surprise to us.
So anyone living in Margate:
1) Find a few known heavy snowfall years in the past
2) Go to the library
3) Look at the Dec, Jan, Feb local papers for those years on microfilm
4) Dont be surprised to find stories almost identical to this
Duncan
But wasn’t Margate a village then? Shouldn’t we therefore have expected idiots then?
It’s an unfortunate end for those crabs that were “lured” by Global Warming (a climatic phenomenon) and who ignored the weather. But that’s what happens when you read the Guardian.
Maybe it has something to do with the light?! From the Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Climate+change+brightens+Arctic/4067954/story.html
Customer to waiter : “Do you serve crabs here?”
Waiter to customer: “We serve everyone, sir.”
If there’s enough snow to change the temperature of the water near shore then there’s enough snow to change the salinity of the water near shore. How do they know which is responsible?
mmm – crabs. And ready frozen as well! Surely the local restauranteurs were out there with buckets!
Seriously, anyone who has lived close to natural systems has seen mass deaths due to heat, cold, wet, dry and so on. It is interesting that those who claim to be in more tune with nature than the rest of us seek to blame humans, as though those things never happened before.
Nature, red in tooth and claw, is too much to bear. So, it must be our fault for having large screen TVs, or too many children.
Like most locals, I am confident that the crabs will be back.
It reminds me of the 550 penguins that died last July in Brazil due to the cold as well as the 6 million tropical fish which also died of the cold in Bolivia. Or was that caused by global warming. ;>)
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Anthony harps
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You can’t make this stuff up, really. Crab deaths due to cold according to one authority are now being blamed on….drum roll….climate change aka global warming, by another.
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This just demonstrates your lack of knowledge of the nature of the problem. The added energy being retained from the excess atmospheric CO2 is causing disruption of the natural expected flow patterns. It is my understanding that global warming is causing the disruption of flow patterns such as the slowing of the Gulf Stream which contributes to abnormalities with the North Atlantic Oscillation and then the Arctic Oscillation. This results in unexpected cold flows which cause these deaths.
These are just more indicators of the danger that greenhouse gases are presenting. Even when we can’t see any extra warming as seems to be the case at the moment, the evidence is there that extra energy is present that shouldn’t be there. We have to act to reduce our emissions of CO2 now, or when that energy is once again expressed as warming we are all screwed.
I should be surprised by your lack of empathy over the early traumatic deaths of these natural creatures, but given the attitudes I’ve come to expect from this site I’m not.
REPLY: Given the predictability of such missives, some enterprising person should be able to come up with an AGW themed equivalent of the Automatic Moonbat Rant Generator, which has unfortunately, been broken for awhile. – Anthony
Small fries compared to the 2,000,000 fish that washed up in Maryland.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7056BB20110106
Still, maybe these fish were killed by global warming also?
In Kampur [?] India new record low maximum of 7.4 C (45 F); birds died in zoo. Coldest day there since records have been kept. AGW? Doubt it.
i’m really glad that the practice of blaming everything on climate change has come to be widely accepted. i say rather than fight it, go with it, it’s great, it’s got me out of so many jams i have lost count. Late for work? climate change! Came home late last night and had to answer to the wife? climate change! Got caught in bed with your best friend’s girl? climate change! Got pulled over for doing 90 in a 60? Climate change! Just who the hell do you think you are? climate change! Can’t do anything right? Climate Change!!!!
Actually caused by a cargo ship losing a container of Nix overboard. Would have done in ever more of the giant crotch crickets had the kelp been trimmed before hand.
“Pat” posting on January 7th notes a “ten-year increase in [global] biomass.” That’s news… could we see charts with backup- and source-data documenting this effect? Since Gaia (sic) has cyclically ceased rebounding from her 500-year Little Ice Age (LIA) from about 1998, correlating a 12-year relative cool-phase with biomass could prove revealing if plotted back to (say) 1890 or thereabouts.
…along with a mess in Bolivian rivers last August. Chilling news. (pun intended)
Cold of the past and dead fish stories.
Thousands of dead crabs wash up on Kent beaches – Jan 2010
“It is the second year that icy temperatures have killed off the sea creatures in such large numbers. ”
BBC
Death of fish laid to cold – January 1948
Cold Kills Fish – Dec. 1957
Cold Winter Blamed for Fish Kill – April 1961
AGW skeptics don’t get it…yes, the crabs were killed by the cold, and so were some manatees last year in Florida, and even some fish in Peru, but because of AGW, they would have been killed by much worse cold, and maybe even more dead…so AGW made them die with a little less cold.
(for you Antlhony)
Correction:
Cold of the past and dead fish / crab stories.
Moderator, please put a “sarcasm off” at the end of my last post, just before I said (for you Anthony)
thanks
Another “Things caused by global warming”
It must be warm this mid-winter. ;>)
says:
January 7, 2011 at 11:49 pm
So just how do we solve the problem of solar warming?.
Taken literally, the question asks how do we keep the temperature of the sun from increasing? The CAGW crowd answer: Send a team of environmentalists to the sun with equipment to sequester all CO2 near the surface of the sun. To avoid overheating and sunburn, make the solar landing at night.
What happened to “The Oceans are getting dangerously warm ” ?
Weren’t they just regaling us with this fantasy last week ?
Found in my previous post from January 8, 2011 at 8:08 am:
I had noticed that curious separator, “——-“, that’s used. I was wondering why I’m seeing a tiny space at the end. Turns out it’s just three characters, an ordinary hyphen (minus) preceded by (according to the Character Map) two “EM DASH” characters, “may be used in pairs to offset parenthetical text.” On my Linux box, in Unicode, that’d be Ctrl-Shift-u 2014. What normal human would go to the trouble of using such a special character for mere separation? Especially someone self-identified as “Lazy” by their handle?
However if some form of automation like a script was involved, even if it only partially filled in a template… Also, if I was planning to automatically parse out a web page and look for certain comments (perhaps for accounting purposes?), “EM DASH, EM DASH, hyphen” makes for a rather unique identifier, suitable for use by a unique commenter.
☺
R. Gates says:
January 8, 2011 at 10:32 am
LOL! Glad to see evidence of an excellent sense of humour – are you straying towards a lukewarm stance?
———–
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
January 8, 2011 at 8:08 am
Initiating LazyTeenager Response Script:
——–
I laughed, I cried, I snickered. Wonderful satire!
Let me get this right. Various marine animals have been misled by a recent spell of warming only to be severely punished when temperatures drop.
Should we take any lessons from this?
@kadaka
“On my Linux box, in Unicode, that’d be Ctrl-Shift-u 2014. What normal human would go to the trouble of using such a special character for mere separation? Especially someone self-identified as “Lazy” by their handle?”
You may be on to something here KD! Maybe LT is a Kataclysmic Kid from Kambridge?
‘World could be plunged into crisis in 2014’: Cambridge expert predicts ‘a great event’ will determine course of the century
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287271/World-plunged-crisis-2014-Cambridge-expert-predicts-Doomsday.html
(just for you RGates)
And my heating bill is less this year because instead of it being 0 degrees like it was 4 years ago, it is .013 degrees warmer today. Oh joy. Thank you lowly CO2. Heat wave.
My math was off! It is .052 degrees warmer than it was 4 years ago. Bikini weather! I’ll tell that to the frozen fish you can see through the ice in the Lostine River.
R. Gates, don’t worry, I knew it was sarcasm. You might have added that they were also disoriented by the whopping 3mm rise in sea level over the last year.
R. Gates says:
January 8, 2011 at 10:34 am
“Moderator, please put a “sarcasm off” at the end of my last post, just before I said (for you Anthony)”
It was obvious, even though i never expected that from you.
A different thought:
The enormous AGW funding lures all kinds of crooks and nutcases into the warm academic waters the AGW meme has created; will a sudden drying up of the AGW funding lead to a mass death of academic careers for the crooks? And would we, in that case, say that AGW is real because it caused such a mass extinction of academic careers?
pat says:
January 8, 2011 at 8:26 am
“Just who the hell do you think you are? climate change!”
ROTFLMAO ! Great!
Hi all, in the case of this story- you will be glad to hear the skeptics/ realists have a man on the ground! I live in the very Palm Bay, Margate Kent, that this article is about. Approximately 1/2 a mile from the beaches mentioned in this story. I’ll pop down the beach tomorrow and take a few pics and post the results on a blog. And yes, it has been flipping cold here the last few winters- global cooling has killed the crabs- not warming!
No, no. You all have it wrong and the AGW cult have it right. What happed was that the crabs and fish and birds and manatees etc. all evolved to better adapt to AGW. Now they were unprepared to deal with this sudden warmcold snap so in a very real sense these die offs are the result of AGW (Do I really need the sarc tag?)
John of Kent says:
January 8, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Any chance of checking the local papers archives for yet more evidence of prior instances?
DaveE.
John of Kent says:
January 8, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Further to my last comment. Local library might be a good source of microfiche copies of defunct local papers.
DaveE.
Thanks to a quick-glance misread of the usual phrase, I now know what the follow-on will be to Anthopogenic Climate Disruption: ACD; Anthropogenic Climate Damage!
The climate is being injured, and doesn’t know what to do!
vigilantfish says:
January 8, 2011 at 1:46 pm
R. Gates says:
January 8, 2011 at 10:32 am
LOL! Glad to see evidence of an excellent sense of humour – are you straying towards a lukewarm stance?
________
Once in a while my skeptical nature really takes hold and sends out a blast of cold sarcasm to fight back the warm winds of my confidence that AGW is happening. Yet I look at the Arctic sea ice extent at record (satellite record) lows for this date, and think of all that cold air that has been pouring out of the Arctic from the very negative AO, and from a nearly persistent Dipole Anomaly…and wonder what it will mean for this summer’s ice extent, and when, if ever, we’ll see the Arctic sea ice have a positive anomaly again…
R. Gates says:
and when, if ever, we’ll see the Arctic sea ice have a positive anomaly again…
And what if we don’t? What if the southern hemisphere begins to freeze over, and the north slowly warms?
“David A. Evans says:
January 8, 2011 at 7:36 pm
John of Kent says:
January 8, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Further to my last comment. Local library might be a good source of microfiche copies of defunct local papers.
DaveE.”
That is a good idea- provided the local paper microfiches have some kind of searchable index system! How far back should I go for news reports?? There are two main local papers, the Kent Extra and the Thanet Times. Although, I guess I only need to skim through the months of Dec- Feb for each paper. The rest of the year has very mild weather here in coastal East Kent.
Dave F says:
January 9, 2011 at 12:25 am
R. Gates says:
and when, if ever, we’ll see the Arctic sea ice have a positive anomaly again…
And what if we don’t? What if the southern hemisphere begins to freeze over, and the north slowly warms?
_____
Then all that we know about ocean currents, atmospheric circulation, and laws of physics will have been proven wrong.
John of Kent says:
January 9, 2011 at 4:54 am
Probably the mid to late ’30s would be a good place to start. If I recall correctly, cooling started about ’41
Probably a dumb question, but has anyone confirmed that these are actual dead crabs and not moulted shells? (Do devil crabs moult?) I only ask because we had a big washup of “dead crabs” on the shores of Port Phillip Bay (Victoria, Australia) a while ago. The media went crazy about climate change being the obvious culprit, until someone pointed out that these were moulted shells – mass moults like this being perhaps uncommon, but not unknown.
Now, we have dead gizzard shad washing up on the shores of Lake Michigan!
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2011/01/big-fish-die-off-along-lakefront.html
This used to happen all the time in the 1980s with the alewives, but I haven’t heard of a big shad dieoff before. At least the ducks & geese are enjoying them!
Clearly, global cooling….