Forsythia for Christmas.

To celebrate the solstace here in new hampshire my forsythias have started sprouting at their tips. Today we are having a torrential early spring rain. As the old rhyme goes, christmas showers bring new years flowers. I realize this is just one data point and means nothing on its own. How about them bears? (Not Da Bears, the bears that have it seems given up on winter hibernation.) Or the Canadian Geese who now just hang out all year long? Migration is just too much trouble, and sleeping in all winter is B.O.R.I.N.G.

Not to worry. We have until around 2015 to do something to change the course we are on, after that things get irreversible. Of course the closer we get to that milestone the harder it becomes both politically and practically to do anything at all.

Peak Oil, Catastrophic Climate Change, and Global Conflict. Heck of a job boomers, heck of a job we've done, heck of a legacy we are leaving for our kids.

It's happening MUCH quicker than we imagined !

windy, blizzardy, Cold as a bastard!

I'd prefer it were cold.

But...that is very weird, that forsythias are blooming now. New Hampshire, you say? Are you not blanketed in snow right now?

Here in Maine, the dog park moms were marveling about the fact that they've all been finding ticks on their dogs. In December.

for Christmas....in fact not until past the new year...

I have a number of perrenials that are still green and my friend in Montreal told me that his grass is still green...that is freaky

Our grass is turning green and new growth is everywhere. We should be in the 20-30s, but have been enjoying 40-50s for the past 3 weeks or so. Even the insects are popping into the picture. Strange.

for DC. We're overdue.

The daylilies are trying to come up and I've got Bachelor Button seedlings all over the garden. I'm contemplating putting in some spinach.

And I've got crocuses sprouting.

But no, nothing wrong with the climate, Mr. bush.

I have been saying my hair is on fire over this issue for a couple of years now. Are any congressional Democrats as scared as I am? 70 degrees at Christmas with my roses wanting to bloom makes me freak out.

The bears are not hibernating, the penguins in the Falklands are dying off, warm-water midges are moving into North American lakes normally inhabited by a cold-water species, the ski hills from Andorra to the Alps are green, 93% of New South Wales is in drought, almost every glacier on the planet is receding.

Add looming food shortages to your list. In six of the last seven years humanity has eaten more grain than we have produced. Exactly how much more evidence do we need?