See last week’s part one: Polar ice caps feel the heat
The debate about global warming appears to be pretty much over. A majority of climate scientists now agree that it’s occurring and there seems no end to the accumulating evidence that rising temperatures are causing changes all over the planet.
The yellow jacket population in Alaska, for example, has undergone a significant increase during the past decade. One effect of the insect’s growing numbers is that in 2006, Fairbanks experienced its first two sting-related deaths. “We think warmer temperatures are allowing the insects to thrive,” says Jeffrey Demain, director of an allergy immunology center in Anchorage. Demain presented his findings in March in Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the AmericanAcademy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.