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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Incredible Shrinking Goats: The Latest Addition To The Official Stupid Things People Blame On Global Warming List


Global warming proponents have blamed the collapse of gingerbread houses in Sweden to UFO sightings in the UK on the climate change hypothesis. The latest example offered up to scare people into believing that global warming is set to kill us all is that certain Alpine goats appear to be shrinking in size.

According to a study by England's Durham University, Chamois a species of mountain goat, now weigh about 25 per cent less than animals of the same age in the 1980s.
Body size declines attributed to climate change are widespread in the animal kingdom, with many fish, bird and mammal species getting smaller," study author Tom Mason, a biologist at England's Durham University, explained in a recent press release. "However the decreases we observe here are astonishing. The impacts on Chamois weight could pose real problems for the survival of these populations.

(...) We know that Chamois cope with hot periods by resting more and spending less time searching for food, and this may be restricting their size more than the quality of the vegetation they eat," study co-author Stephen Willis said. "If climate change results in similar behavioral and body mass changes in domestic livestock, this could have impacts on agricultural productivity in coming decades."
Despite the fear mongering this study originally published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology did not find that global warming is causing smaller goats. It simply finds that these mountain goats aren't as big as they were 30 years ago. The scientists claim it is a result of global warming but they do not present research proving linkage between the two.

There are also issues with the research itself, specially the way they got their data. The scientists didn't weigh the goats by taking their bathroom scales or some equivalent up to the mountains and asking the Chamois to step on. They received their data from checking the records of hunters who have shot goats. They didn't even weigh the deceased nannies and bucks they just used the claims of hunters, assumed that all the scales were calibrated the same and that technology hasn't changed the scale in the past 30 years.

Another problem with the scientists' claim is that people have been over-harvesting of older male Chamois goats, leaving a higher concentration of smaller younger animals.

If the researchers were being truthful they would admit there's no scientific link between the shrinking goats and global warming.

Therefore this latest scare becomes the 51st item the official "Stupid Things People Blame On Global Warming List" ach one of the items below, from the Arab Spring to Vampire Bats and the Sinking of the Titanic have been blamed on climate change. You see if someone in the world stubs their toe, a global warming fear monger will find a way to blame it on global warming.

Each of the 50 Items below link to an article explaining the claim---not included are regular natural phenomena such as hurricanes, wildfires,etc. Those have been rebuked in other posts.

  1. The Arab spring
  2. Incredible shrinking sheep,
  3. Invasion of jellyfish in the Mediterranean
  4. Surge in fatal shark attacks 
  5. Boy Scout tornado deaths,  
  6. Severe acne,  
  7. Global conflict,   
  8. Beer tasting different,  
  9. Suicide of farmers in Australia
  10. Bigger tuna fish
  11. Fish shrinkage
  12. Longer days
  13. Shorter days,   
  14. Collapse of gingerbread houses in Sweden
  15. Cow infertility,  
  16. UFO sightings in the UK,  
  17. Rise in insurance premiums
  18. Heroin addiction 
  19. Bear attacks in Japan  
  20. Frigid Cold Winters in Great Britain 
  21. Cancer
  22. Death from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, respiratory disease and even accidents,
  23. Homicide, suicide
  24. Water -borne disease outbreaks
  25. Heavier, wetter snowstorms treacherous for travel and ambulation, 
  26. Lyme disease, swarms of allergy-inducing, stinging insects, along with mosquitoes and devastating pine bark beetle infestations and the spread of forest and crop pests  
  27. 40,000 dead crabs 
  28. Shorter, higher pitched frog mating calls
  29. Unrest in the Middle East.  
  30. Screwed-up love making,  
  31. The Japanese earthquake-tsunami,  
  32. Horrible rash of tornadoes in southeast United States
  33. Extended severe allergy seasons, Lyme disease, malaria or dengue fever, trauma, depression, high blood pressure and heart disease, 
  34. Eye Disorders.
  35. Increased threat of wars, violence and military action against the UK. 
  36. Migration of possibly rabid Vampire bats from Mexico, 
  37. Extreme weather, disappearing islands and less productive workdays
  38. Giant Snakes
  39. Armed robbery, prostitution, and drug abuse in Ghana,  will make you go nuts,
  40. The rise of terrorist group Boko Haram 
  41. Caused the Seychelles snail to go extinct (its alive and well), 
  42. Rock Snot
  43. Increase anxiety, fear and depression
  44. Expensive Olives
  45. No more red-haired people, women will become pear-shaped,  incontinent, impotent bald guys with extra hair growing from his toes. 
  46. Global Cooling
  47. The Sinking of The Titanic 
  48. Illegal Immigration  
  49. ISIS 
  50. Walrus "Convention" 
  51. Shrinking Goats

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