100,000 bats fall from Australian skies due to heat wave

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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100,000 bats fall from Australian skies due to heat wave

So, climate change deniers, you think the deep freeze that America has just been through is proof that there is no climate change, eh? Maybe you should spin the globe halfway around and take a look at what’s going on in Australia at exactly the same time. The northeastern state of Queensland has been buried in dead bats that have fallen from the sky. The cause is extreme heat as temperatures reach record highs.

Conservation worker Louise Saunders said, “It’s a horrible, cruel way to die. Anything over 43 degrees [Celsius, or 109F] and they just fall. We’re just picking up those that are just not coping and are humanely euthanizing what we can.”

Bat carcasses are rotting on the ground and in trees.

As if that trauma weren’t enough, the stench of 100,000 bat carcasses rotting on the ground is even worse for residents of the affected districts. The International Business Times reported that “hundreds of bats were starting to decompose in bushes and trees with maggots eating the rotten flesh.” But when local residents have tried to clean them up, many have been bitten or scratched by bats that have not quite expired. At least 16 people have had to get anti-viral treatment due to close contact with the bats.

Nor is the extreme weather over. Temperatures continue to climb and heat is spreading to other parts of Australia. Some areas are likely to reach 122 F yet this week. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, temperature records were broken in 34 areas from Dec. 30th to Jan. 4th.

The deaths affect the whole ecosystem

The overall effect is likely to be devastating and far-reaching. Michael Beatty, a spokesman for the local SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) said, “The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in south-east Queensland. That’s obviously going to have a pretty disturbing impact on those colonies and those colonies are vital to our ecosystem.”

For those who may think, So what, it’s just bats?, consider this. Bats eat destructive insects, pollinate plants, and distribute seeds. Whatever decimates bats, decimates the whole environment of which they are a part — including those things upon which humans depend. In addition, large numbers of other animals — parrots, kangaroos, emus — have also perished.

Professional crews have been dispatched to clean up the carcasses that have already fallen, except in the bushlands where further disruption of the colonies is feared. However, as the damage continues to increase, the degree of recovery possible becomes more uncertain.

100,000 bats fall from sky in Australia due to extreme heat
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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I think so, but never to this extent.


The number of bats that have succumbed to the heatwave is so great it has significantly damaged the population across the state.

Michael Beatty, spokesman for Queensland’s RSPCA, said: ‘The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in south-east Queensland.

‘That’s obviously going to have a pretty disturbing impact on those colonies and those colonies are vital to our ecosystem.’

Residents have been plagued by the stench of the animals’ corpses, which rot quickly in the heat, and councils have organised special collections.

Australia heatwave: 100,000 dead bats fall from the sky in Queensland, say RSPCA | Metro News
 

Blackleaf

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Only global warmists can think it unusual that a desert country like Australia gets hot in summer.
 

MHz

Time Out
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Is this the first time this has ever happened?
Never in the history of man or bats has there ever been a heatwave. Pin the tail on the donkey or just making this **** up so they don't appear as clueless as they are. I suppose all the other incidents are also 'heat' related like the various time birds just dropped out of the sky, in January, obviously that would be heat related deaths. Might as well apply that to the missing bees as well. The graph shows 1 deg C and monitoring locations could have changed and that is why there is a change showing at all.

 
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EagleSmack

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Only global warmists can think it unusual that a desert country like Australia gets hot in summer.

They needed something after this past week of disastrous frigid temps...

...Anything

Never in the history of man or bats has there ever been a heatwave. Pin the tail on the donkey or just making this **** up so they don't appear as clueless as they are. I suppose all the other incidents are also 'heat' related like the various time birds just dropped out of the sky, in January, obviously that would be heat related deaths. Might as well apply that to the missing bees as well.

Badabing...

Be aware... its a PDF

http://climatehistory.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Gergis_BAMOS_Oct2008.pdf

1790 A.D .... 109 Degrees F.... Bats falling from sky... PWNED
 

mentalfloss

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Yea, 'thousands' earlier this decade and 20 thousand from what I can tell in that report.

Scary stuff.
 
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EagleSmack

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Yea, 'thousands' earlier this decade and 20 thousand from what I can tell in that report.

Scary stuff.

Did you read the temps in the article? 109 Degrees F in 1790... same temp as given in your OP. Were bats more robust in 1790? The temps were sure the same... don't you agree?

Do you think the counting means were the same in 1790?

And 100,000 sounds like a pretty round number don't you think?
 

MHz

Time Out
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Did you read the temps in the article? 109 Degrees F in 1790... same temp as given in your OP. Were bats more robust in 1790? The temps were sure the same... don't you agree?

Do you think the counting means were the same in 1790?

And 100,000 sounds like a pretty round number don't you think?
So bats were worth all the trouble to report but nothing on the CO2 output of continuous wild-fires back then. In carbon points how much would the Govt own on the burn that is not higher than 95% efficiency?

Suiciding old-times is a more likely story, giving the dwindling food to the ones that should survive if any will.

Do they know they should leave the bodies for other birds to devour as food? Same with the whales and such that beach themselves and die, they should be towed out to deep water and become food.

Did they get that number by counting feet in the pile (and dividing by two) beside the 'free wings' sign?
 
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mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Did you read the temps in the article? 109 Degrees F in 1790... same temp as given in your OP. Were bats more robust in 1790? The temps were sure the same... don't you agree?

Do you think the counting means were the same in 1790?

And 100,000 sounds like a pretty round number don't you think?

Yea, rounded up by 5X the number you've given.
 

Christianna

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Dec 18, 2012
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Do they know they should leave the bodies for other birds to devour as food? Same with the whales and such that beach themselves and die, they should be towed out to deep water and become food.
You know bats are the only mammal that contracts rabies , survives and then become carriers?
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Heat waves in Oz are from dropping ocean temps. No ocean warmth to make rain to cool off the continent. Just like the US just a couple years ago.
 

Blackleaf

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ONly deniers think that it's unusual that a polar country like Canada gets cold.

I think you'll find that it's the warmists who find it unusual that Canada gets get cold in the winter. They have been trying to blame the cold weather on global warming.
 

mentalfloss

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I think you'll find that it's the warmists who find it unusual that Canada gets get cold in the winter. They have been trying to blame the cold weather on global warming.

There's nothing unusual about a cold winter, but we have never seen the kind of destruction like this one has brought.
 

Blackleaf

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There's nothing unusual about a cold winter, but we have never seen the kind of destruction like this one has brought.


I don't believe you.

Back in 1888 parts of North America were hit with a severe cold wave. It led to a blizzard for the northern Plains and upper Mississippi valley where many children were trapped in schoolhouses where they froze to death.

The winter of 1911/12 was also exceptionally cold across vast areas of the USA. Niagara Falls became frozen solid, and people were able to walk across it. $6,000,000 ($145,100,000 today) was wiped off the Californian citrus industry. The freezing winter left 47 people dead.

If you go back to 1936 huge swathes of North America were hit by an exceptional cold snap. Wind chills in some locations were near −100 °F (−73 °C). This intense cold compelled some people to wear seven layers of clothing before going outdoors.

The 2014 cold snap in North America will go down in history as just another cold snap of several which have hit North America over the decades. It will be seen decades and centuties from now as having been nothing unusual. It will be just another cold snap which just like those which hit North America in 1888, 1911 and 1936.

Even Britain's Meteorological Office - once a great believer in Global Warming until its own research found that the world has been getting colder since 1997 - has even admitted it doubts that this recent North American cold snap has anything to do with global warming or "climate change".

Britain's recent floods, which are a common occurrence and which have been caused by severe storms, are also blamed by the warmists on "climate change". They say it's a sign that "climate change" is happening and that we have to build more windmills to stop it happening. However, this is what the the Meteorological Office had to say about it: “At the moment there’s no evidence to suggest that these storms are more intense because of climate change.”

Not too long ago we simply called it "winter".
 
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EagleSmack

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There's nothing unusual about a cold winter, but we have never seen the kind of destruction like this one has brought.

Yes we have. As pointed out they had they same temps in 1790 with the same effect on bats.

You'll have to try harder.