Almost a million dollars of taxpayer money flushed down the global warming prairie dog hole, with no due diligence from the NSF.
Researchers from the University of Colorado and Kansas State University have been awarded a grant for more than $850,000 to study the impacts of climate change on prairie dogs in the Boulder area.
The massive grant — from the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation — is designed to give the researchers three years in the field to try and figure out how climate change is altering prairie dog habitat and how the rodents are responding to those changes.
“The classical studies on prairie dogs for foraging behavior were sort of null and void” under the new climate reality, Seastedt said.For example, prairie dogs don’t hibernate, but they do tend to stay underground during the winter. Seastedt said warmer temperatures and less snow cover may change that behavior.
I could have saved taxpayers a million bucks. Over the last 60 years, winter (Dec-Feb) maximum temperatures in Boulder have been declining and snowfall has been increasing. The exact opposite of the fundamental premise of the study. The “new climate reality” is unadulterated nonsense.
“This makes the argument that they’re going to be up there grazing for a longer period of time,” Seastedt said.
He said changes in climate and plant species could present a “variety of challenges that this keystone species has never faced.”
Here is my study of Fort Collins Prairie Dogs. Can I have a million bucks?
h/t to Marc Morano
What a complete crock of a grant system they have. The first and foremost thing the grant committee should have checked is whether the climate in the area being studied has actually changed.
It certainly isn’t going to change much in the 3 year study period. How about they spread the grant over a more appropriate climatic period, like 10,000 years?
Who is in charge of this crap at the federal level? This nonsense has to stop!
I shot a lot of prairie dogs when I lived down there.
Brock Lesnar, former UFC heavyweight champ, studys Prairie Dogs. Rated PG.
Prairie dogs with a 50 BMG! OKEY DOKEY!
Before we defund a single military program, this must stop. I am all for a leaner military, but not at the expense of prairie dog studies. What utter fools.
Ever noticed how there are an army of warmists academics and ‘scientists’ ?Ever noticed how the academics are almost universally down for “Change” ? This is their payback from the donks. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that some small portion of these funds don’t indirectly find their way back into donk campaign coffers.
Remember Gator, these little critters have never seen changing conditions before. I guess the ice ages are now also part of non-history, let alone the LIttle Ice Age or the various Warm Periods.
I’ll bet prairie dogs would NOT sleep out under the stars even if it was warmer. Can we say “coyote”?
What’s a rodent to do?
I guess I never realized prairie dogs were migratory. I always had the dumb idea that they were somewhat adaptable to changing seasons. Good thing we have people smarter than me making these budgetary decisions.
The current population of these types of creatures is due to the killing off of their predators that used to keep the populations in check.
Ah! But how do we keep university populations in check? Are there any known predators?
I have only limited knowledge in global warming, but I still think that scientists have exaggerated the role of climate, at least in the outbreak of cholera. More can be read at http://savemoneyforscience.blogspot.com/2011/05/prejudice-or-hijacking-science.html
This stuff is rampant in our federal budget. And they are shameless about it, no remorse. They have the temerity to scream when called out about it. These leftist Socialists believe they are entitled to our money with no strings attached.
Revolution Calling.