Monday, July 24, 2006
CRITTERS THRIVING
Behold the goodness that is global warming:
In spite of dire warnings about climate change, the most northerly reaches of Scandinavia are basking in good news: reindeer are growing stronger and the salmon larger. New possibilities are opening up for tourism trade and even for wine-makers.
In Rovaniemi, Father Christmas’s Lapland home in northern Finland, reindeer are putting on weight. Jan-Eric Paadar, a herdsman’s son in the northerly Inari region, said recent shorter winters meant Finland’s 200,000 reindeer had longer to graze on grass and lichen. “It’s easier to find food when the winter comes later and later all the time,” he said.
The same applies to Norway, where the government reindeer department has reported four bumper grazing years. “They are in good condition. Last year there was a very good market for reindeer meat,” said Christian Lindman, a spokesman.
Salmon farmers are also benefiting. At Volden, a family-run salmon and trout producer in the coastal town of Alta, an employee said higher water temperatures made fish eat more and grow faster.
So the fishes aren’t dying in the world after all. Oh, well. In related developments, Nathan Goulding discovers an inconvenient fact: “You may not have heard, but the film WordPlay is the only movie on this BoxOfficeMojo chart that’s been out for 4 weeks or longer and has grossed less money than Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth.”