Of the frog in the pot

2006 November 4
by chengpuay

remember the story of the frog dipped in a pot of water which is slowly getting warm. The frog will stay in the pot and get cooked without being aware of its predicament.
Well frogs all around are now slowly being cooked in the huge pot we call Earth.
National Geographic reports that about two-thirds of the 110 known harlequin frog species are believed to have vanished during the 1980s and 1990s. The culprit is most likely the disease-causing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. In the past, the temperatures extremes have kept the growth of B. dendrobatidis in check until recently with the global warming, there is less temperature difference between night and day. In the day the increaed temperature created a thicker envelope of mist in the day which cuts down amount of sunlight reaching the forests which the frogs live in. In the night, the mist serves as an insulator trapping heat. Such conditions allowed the fungus to proliferate and affect the frog population.

Talk about the frog in the pot. Its already happening.

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