Kevin Robert Dean <qualiall_2 at yahoo.com>
writes, citing the article
"The greening of the North: real, and caused by climate change"
which says that
'Twenty years of satellite observations have indicated a "greening" trend in northern regions of the northern hemisphere'
Which I remember being widely bawled out by Doug for saying a couple of years ago. But not content with this good news, Kevin's article goes on to say,
'Scientists ... have developed an advanced global ecosystem model showing that the trend is just as would be expected due to the warming climate'.
Well, what a load of misery-guts is all I can say. No doubt they would all produce a model saying that 'the trend is just as expected due to the warming climate' if the evidence had gone the other way, too.
In fact, the trend to more forest cover needs no atmospherical explanations, but arises out of simple economics. Forest cover is inversely related to land under cultivation. Since around 1980 land under cultivation has been falling as yield increases, allowing more grain from less land. Subsequently, more land has been retired some of which is given over to forests, under policies to promote environmental areas in N America and Europe.
The same effects are not evident in the Southern hemisphere because of land pressure due to low agricultural productivity.
(Science 31st May 2002). Full Article: http://www.mpg.de/news02/news0213.htm -- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'