Organic Cluelessness

Right wing bloggerland will never dare talk about energy depletion issues. Instead, they will occasionally veer towards substance but end up delving into pointless and naive ruminations about nothingness. Assmissile of Powerlineblog provides this iconic howler:

One of the under-reported stories of our time is the return of wildlife to civilized places in America. All around the country, you hear similar stories. Where I live, in a fourth-tier suburb of Minneapolis, you can't drive to the grocery story without seeing hawks, and if you go a few miles, eagles are plentiful. Coyotes and foxes abound in my neighborhood. Possums are now seen from time to time--I found the head of a possum on my deck, deposited there, I suppose, by an owl. There are rumors of mountain lions, but the only confirmed sightings are some miles away.

Nutjob, opossums have only recently been seen migrating into Minnesota.

The Minnesota Conservation Volunteer (donate!) contains an article on "climate change" and wildlife. Clearly they are a little gun-shy about the subject, choosing the euphemism for global warming, but they do point out how various wildlife have increased their territorial range due to warming. Virginia opossums are short-lived animals, who will invariably show evidence of frostbite on their ears and tails if they try to survive in Minnesota.

They are hanging around your suburban house because it is warm! You found a head of an opossum on your deck because they live an average of 1 to 2 years! The thing "died".


And Powerline buddies at Fraters Libertas have a quote of mine in their masthead. For memory-hole completeness, see the image stage right. (click to enlarge)

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Update from the memory banks: Westchester County in NY is loaded with opossum. When walking or jogging, I would see the dead ones all over the roads. It turns out that they are in fact often attracted to roadsides where they feed on road-killed animals, including other opossums. Basically a big positive feedback cycle. It has nothing to do with natural processes and everything to do with artifical (man-made) feasting and a fast reproduction cycle. Kind of depressing actually.