A friend sent this to me:

“Spring has sprung,
But the bees are not swarming…
Could this be due to global warming?”

I like this little ditty – it works on so many levels. It’s May. Here in Calgary, finally, belatedly, ‘Spring has sprung” – the leaves are justnow opening on the willows and poplars. Pollen has been blowing for only a week or so. A late spring is normal for us at Calgary’s high elevation and latitude. It is May and there is still a chill in the air; yet, in a few weeks it will be too hot to polka in the street. I think climate change is like that – too cool, then much too hot. Global warming is certainly a reality. The ice cap that once formed a stylish toque over the globe’s bald head is melting – watery-eyed earth is about to get really wet. It has happened before, many times, but this round is on us and our myriad chemicals and exhausts. I guess if we treat our air and oceans as garbage dumps, we deserve what we’re going to get. But it’s too bad that the other animals on the planet have to suffer for our indulgences and indolences. However, I think the bees will eventually be OK, even if we are not.