Hummingbirds and lilies

Mountain lilies are blooming 17 days earlier than they did in just the 1970s. That comes out to be a change of about 4 days per decade. Such a dramatic change has to have effects on other species, and it does. In this particular case, the species affected is the broad-tailed hummingbird. These hummingbirds arrive in the mountains of the western North America to breed every spring and depend on the nectar from the mountain lily to sustain them. The lilies are now blooming by the time the hummingbirds arrive. Within a few decades the birds will be arriving after the blooms have already wilted.

For years the argument has been there was no such thing as global warming. The climate change deniers went to great lengths to push this point. But, more and more data like this report on the mountain lilies shows the planet is indeed getting warmer. The deniers have now shifted their arguments that this warming is not due to manmade emissions. Instead, they claim, this is just a normal warming cycle.

But, if there is no warming then how can there be a natural warming cycle?

Well, the deniers now admit there is warming.

But, if they were so wrong on the fact that the planet is warming, what makes anyone think they are right about it being a natural warming cycle?

The climate change deniers argue you can't trust the climate scientists because we 'don't know everything.' It is true we don't know everything, but we know this much - the climate change deniers denied all science that said the planet is warming until it was no longer possible to do so. Now, they are denying all science that says the warming is due to manmade gases.

The logical conclusion is this: They were wrong when they denied science before, they are going to be wrong when they deny that same science again.