It must simply lovely to have such faith in mankind. Never a frown to wrinkle A.E. Newman's brow.

Here are some snippets from a disturbing report:

"SAN FRANCISCO - (Monday, August 1, 2005) Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton — the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.

"Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?

"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."

"Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.

"This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.

"Off Oregon, for example, the waters near the shore are 5 to 7 degrees warmer than normal and have yielded about one-fourth the usual amount of phytoplankton, said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Newport, Ore.

"The bottom has fallen out of the coastal food chain, and there's just not enough food out there," said Julia Parrish, a seabird ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Yes, Doug, I realize that the article says that most scientists are not willing to attribute this particular phenomenom to 'global warming', based on a "single incident". (Although I do fail to see why this is called a single incident when it appears to be simultaneous but multi-faceted.)

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