You know what this means? Climate doom. All because you refuse to give up your fossil fueled travel and take the train or bus, refuse to stop eating juicy burgers, and won’t give up your money, freedom, and choice to Government
Think of Japan in the spring, and the image that comes to mind is likely the country’s famous cherry blossoms, also known as “sakura” — white and pink flowers, bursting across cities and mountains, petals covering the ground.
The flowers, which experience a “peak bloom” that only lasts a few days, have been revered in Japan for more than a thousand years. Crowds celebrate with viewing parties, flocking to the most popular locations to take photos and have picnics underneath the branches.
But this year, cherry blossom season has come and gone in the blink of an eye, in one of the earliest blooms on record — and scientists warn it’s a symptom of the larger climate crisis threatening ecosystems everywhere.
Yasuyuki Aono, a researcher at Osaka Prefecture University, has gathered records from Kyoto back to 812 AD from historical documents and diaries. In the central city of Kyoto, cherry blossoms peaked on March 26, the earliest in more than 1,200 years, Aono said.
And in the capital Tokyo, cherry blossoms reached full bloom on March 22, the second-earliest date on record.
“As global temperatures warm, the last spring frosts are occurring earlier and flowering is occurring sooner,” said Dr. Lewis Ziska from Columbia Universities Environmental Health Sciences.
The peak bloom dates shift every year, depending on numerous factors including weather and rainfall, but have shown a general trend of moving earlier and earlier. In Kyoto, the peak date hovered around mid-April for centuries, according to Aono’s data, but began moving into early April during the 1800s. The date has only dipped into late March a handful of times in recorded history.
So, they bloomed super early 1,200 years ago? What caused that? Sure weren’t factories, fossil fuels, or megacities back then. Why can’t they be blooming earlier the same as back then? Which, interestingly, was during the Dark Ages, a time of mild cooling after the Roman Climate Optimum. And when the earlier times started shifting in the 1800’s, well, that was because the Earth was coming out of the Little Ice Age. The climate shifts.
Cherry blossom season in Japan ???? pic.twitter.com/jqaS8yx9tj
— Earth (@earth) March 30, 2021
Their early bloom, however, is just the tip of the iceberg of a worldwide phenomenon that could destabilize natural systems and countries’ economies, said Amos Tai, assistant professor of earth science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
There are two sources of increased heat, which is the main factor making the flowers bloom earlier: urbanization and climate change. With increased urbanization, cities tend to get warmer than the surrounding rural area, in what is called the heat island effect. But a bigger reason is climate change, which has caused rising temperatures across the region and the world.
I’m rather shocked they mentioned the urban heat island effect, which, while man-caused, is not global. But, they fail to mention the #1 reason for climatic systems, natural systems, starting with the Sun. But, that’s what climate cultists do. And the long screed goes on to describe more Doom which is all your fault. Just surrender, peons!
