China rat 'baby boom' blamed on global warming

[tex-wyo-dem]

China rat 'baby boom' blamed on global warming

May 14, 2007 11:45 PM
Associated Press

BEIJING – An early boom in the rat population in western China has been blamed on global warming, Chinese news media reported Tuesday.

Xinhua News Agency quoted animal husbandry officials in Altay prefecture in northern Xinjiang saying a warm winter had resulted in a "baby boom" of rats in April, a month earlier than normal.

Officials said the rats are threatening two million hectares of pastureland in Altay, about 20 per cent of the total in northern Xinjiang.

The average temperature in Xinjiang during the last winter was two to four degrees Celsius higher than normal and snow in the remote mountains in Altay shrank by at least 32 centimetres, Xinhua said.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/213940

[YOY]

1. According to a Chinese friend of mine some over there would view it as a boon

Rat, the other white meat.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "Household deer". nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Was there a correlation between the Medieval Warm Period

and the rat population explosion which kicked off the rapid spread of bubonic plague? Or was that just a coincidence?

[Javaman]

3. Okay, everyone tuck their pants into their socks. nt