Superseding all of these isolated, though nonetheless tragic, disasters, is the end all and be all, the ultimate come uppins' for scientific man: Global Warming. With national leaders such as UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer predicting simultaneous droughts, floods, and famines--which the less enlightened may think to be mutually exclusive-- it may seem as though people will finally be good and prepared for the coming catastrophe. Al Gore, the peaceful promulgator of carbon awareness and environmental consideration, put his money where his mouth is, and the $75 million he loaned to Silver Springs Networks, an energy-saving technology company, was backed by the U.S. government, which has directed $3.4 billion in aid and development--all in addition to the recent motions in the Senate. Still, there are those naysayers, those who refuse to board Noah's Ark even as the ice caps begin to melt. The Frederick Seitz Project, a petition signed by 31, 478 scientists attesting to the invalidity of man-made global warming, demonstrates the stubbornness of those self-proclaimed educated who cannot see what others feel all around them.
Man would do well to heed the forewarnings of his four-legged friends, and while he has often rued his past neglect, nature has again come knocking. All of the female South American spotted bears at the Leipzig zoo in Germany have lost their hair, clearly in anticipation of the coming global warmth. The sudden change has veterinarians baffled, and while many insist it is some sort of sudden onset genetic disorder, a lack of additional symptoms or adverse health effects yields little credence to this theory. It is early November, but instead of growing an increasingly thick coat as normal and undisturbed bears would this time of year, these prognosticating creatures have taken the coming climate change into consideration. Visitors have been bombarding the the Leipzig Zoo in record number to marvel at the bizarre spectacle; one hopes they will take more away from the experience than a few awkward photographs. The spotted bear, the only indigenous bear of South America, is listed as "vulnerable to extinction" by the International union for the Conservation of Nature, and supposedly has lost over thirty percent of its natural habitat to human encroachment. If people do not heed these anticipatory creatures, if they dismiss the Bear's sudden baldness as an unexplained, unsubstantiated bit of fun like so many are dismissing global warming, then the spotted bear may soon be finding the world a much more spacious place.
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