On this fifth anniversary of the earliest tornado ever spotted in Wisconsin …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4gj32n75P8

the National Weather Service brings us …

… every severe thunderstorm and tornado warning in the U.S. in 2012.

That does not include the tornado warning for Grant County for the tornado that hit Bloomington Sept. 4. The sirens were also activated in Platteville because a Platteville police officer saw a suspicious cloud:

(I wax nostalgic for tornado warnings when it’s, as I type this, 14 degrees. Winter sucks.)

The boilerplate response to the weather is that global warming is causing it, whatever “it” is.

For purposes of argument, let’s say that man-made global warming is affecting the weather. Why would that necessarily be a bad thing?

Forbes.com’s James Taylor is something every scientist and every journalist should be, but isn’t — a skeptic:

Global warming will benefit most Arctic species, a team of scientists report in the peer-reviewed journalPLOS One. According to the scientists, global warming will allow most Arctic species to expand their ranges, and no species are expected to go extinct. The findings deliver a sharp jab to global warming activists arguing Arctic warming justifies costly, government imposed economic restrictions. …

“The area of tundra is expected to decrease and temperate climates will extend further north, affecting species inhabiting northern environments. Consequently, species at high latitudes should be especially susceptible to climate change, likely experiencing significant range contractions,” the scientists explained at the beginning of their study. …

“It is supposed that the large expected climate change at high northern latitudes therefore makes species in (sub)arctic regions particularly susceptible, especially the European part of the (Sub)arctics, since this region is the most geographically complex with the most infrastructure and great cultural, social, and political heterogeneity,” the scientists noted.

After modeling the effects of global warming in European high latitudes, however, the scientists reported that global warming alarmists are entirely wrong about the impact of global warming on Arctic and subarctic species. In reality, global warming is likely to benefit most Arctic and subarctic species.

“Contrary to these expectations, our modeling of species distributions suggests that predicted climate change up to 2080 will favor most mammals presently inhabiting (sub)arctic Europe,” the scientists reported. …

Most species will dramatically expand their ranges as the climate warms, the scientists discovered. Accordingly, global warming will enhance rather than restrict biodiversity. …

Even if human alterations to the landscape preclude species from expanding their ranges to newly suitable lands, no animals will go extinct. …

“In contrast to the general belief that species inhabiting the (sub)arctics will face increased levels of stress due to climate change, our work suggests that the climate in sub(arctic) Europe will ameliorate the future conditions for most of its mammalian species. Warmer and wetter conditions favor more species,” the scientists concluded.