Seals Respond to Global Warming Trend with Love

I opened up rawstory.org, one of my favorite liberal news clearinghouse websites, to find this adorable picture of two seals snuggling in the mud. Wow, that mud looks a little bit like my yard right here in Montpelier, Vermont. I thought maybe I had accidentally opened to the National Geographic or Animal Planet website, but it turns out that these seals mating in the mud actually have a political message. The article connected to this image was published in the Daily Mail and is appropriately entitled, "Climate Change Putting Seals in the Mood for Love". According to the article, research conducted in a seal colony on the Scottish island of North Rona, shows that rising temperatures have had an impact on the travel patterns of the grey seals and some of the less aggressive, more "sensitive pony-tail" guy seals are getting a little more action and putting some diversity into the grey seal gene pool. Here is an excerpt from this article that puts a new twist on global warming.

Male seals are reaping the benefits of climate change by having more sex, scientists have discovered.

Subordinate grey seals are taking advantage of rising temperatures and falling rainfall to mate more often.

Due to climate change female grey seals are being forced to travel further for drinking water - removing them from the watchful eye of the dominant males and allowing the subordinate males to take advantage.

If we don't do something about climate change in Vermont soom, who knows what the streets of Burlington or the muddy ski slopes in Stowe will look like in a few years. While this idea of free love might seem interesting for a little while, I'm not sure how it would impact Vermont's already kind of eclectic image. Could be interesting.