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Does global warming bug you?
By JACK DOWNS
Design Editor
Brimming oceans wash away Manhattan; monster hurricanes strike deep into the continent; vast droughts parch the South and West; killer heat waves bake the nation.
The apocalyptic predictions of global climate change have the feel of a Hollywood blockbuster - a cast of billions, great special effects and a plot line just strange enough to make it all feel unreal.
But, in the short run, it may be the tiny and seemingly insignificant that have a greater personal impact on the North Country than the mega forces roiling the earth's atmosphere and oceans.
The warming trend encourages the northward advance of Lyme disease, termites, West Nile virus, the hemlock-ravaging woolly adelgid, poison ivy ... the list goes on and on.
You see, global warming has already begun to dismantle the great defense the North Country had against many nuisance species -- extreme cold. With the exception of a few lakeside sheltered spots, pests like these couldn't gain a foothold in the North Country when winter scoured the region with extended -10, -20 and even -30 temperatures.
Do I hear someone out there saying "I'd gladly take a few tree-eating beetles in exchange for a warmer winter." How about an increase in disease-carrying rats, mosquitoes and ticks? Care for a little malaria with your balmy winter?
I'll take my climate change with a big dose of vaccine, thank you.
Want an academic view on he problem? See "Death by Global Warming," a report on research by Cornell Researcher Dr. David Pimentel: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Feb00/AAAS.Pimentel.hrs.html
