The Crash Of Flight 1549 And Global Warming

It seems that every problem in the world today comes back in some way to an unproven scientific hypothesis that man is destroying the planet through the emission of CO2 gas.

If any event achieves national or international publicity and fame, then the media quickly springs into action with environmental blame.

The latest example of this dubious global warming public relations game, can be seen in the cause of the crash of flight 1549 into the Hudson River in New York. It has been well documented that a flock of geese became caught in the planes engines and downed the plane. So what do a flock of geese have to do with man-made global warming?

Two media publications made an immediate connection. According to articles in Time Magazine and the New York Times, the crash of flight 1549 into the Hudson River last week was because geese migrating behavior is changed as a result of man-made global warming.

Here is the quote from Time Magazine: " While officials use radar and radio collars to track bird populations, habitat destruction and climate change have disrupted migratory patterns. Moreover the populations of certain species of birds are increasing at a rapid rate thanks to changes in the food supply. The Canadian geese population has grown 7.3% annually from 1980 to 2006."

The New York Times quotes Joel L. Cracraft, curator in charge of the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History as follows: "There is evidence in both North America and Europe that birds are shifting their territories and that has been correlated with global warming".

Of course, a global warming explanation of the changes in migrating patterns of geese overlooks the facts. United States Government data show Canada geese are the biggest avian threat to airplanes and jets, and caused $47.4 million worth of damage to airplanes from 1990 to 2007. In that period, US pilots reported 1,109 strikes by Canada geese, including 568 that caused serious damage to aircraft - a damage rate of 51 percent.

So, it seems that geese have been playing havoc and doing damage with domestic flights for some time. There is nothing new going on in their migrating pattern there. In addition, the resident population of Canada geese in New York City and on Long Island are estimated to be more than 25,000, and another 25,000 are believed to migrate through the area each year.

That's a lot of large geese dangerous to air travel, living near a major international airport, don't you think? Well, that large population of geese in New York is actually the result of man-made environmental laws not man-made global warming.

In the 1960's the state of New York released farm raised geese to improve hunting. However, the geese would soon became welcome New Yorkers as environmental laws to protect the birds and their habitats were signed into law. In fact, now there are four International Treaties as well as federal and state laws designed to protect Canada geese and other migratory birds.

New York Senator, Chuck Schumer has even boasted of being responsible for an earmark that increased the population of Canada geese right in the neighborhood of LaGuardia Airport, from which the doomed aircraft took off: This earmark was in response to an issue in 2004 when Geesepeace was trying to save a flock of geese from Riker’s Island (in the flight path of Laguardia) rather than have the geese killed.

It seems that there are many possible man-made reasons for a large flock of geese to be flying in the path of flight 1549 last week over New York. However, despite all the recent media hype, global warming is not one of them.

http://www.eworldvu.com