Never mind. Again2!

The slow backing away from all of the things we just KNEW were caused by GW is becoming a parade.

In the scientific equivalent of the board game Clue,teams of biologists have been sifting spotty evidence and pointing to various culprits in the widespread vanishing of harlequin frogs.

That’s the New York Times set up to tell you that what they previously told you is “no longer operative”. But first they have to tell you what they already told you:

It looked as if one research team was a winner in 2006 when global warming was identified as the “trigger” in the extinctions by the authors of a much-cited paper in Nature. The researchers said they had found a clear link between unusually warm years and the vanishing of mountainside frog populations.

The authors, led by J. Alan Pounds of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, said, “Here we show that a recent mass extinction associated with pathogen outbreaks is tied to global warming.” The study was featured in reports last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Now here comes the “never mind” part:

Now, in the March 25 issue of PLoS Biology, another team argues that the die-offs of harlequins and some other amphibians reflect the spread and repeated introductions of the chytrid fungus. They question the analysis linking the disappearances to climate change.

And here’s the payoff pitch:

“There is so much we still do not know!” David B. Wake, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley

Amen, Mr. Wake. Amen.

But even though “there’s so much we still don’t know”, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything we can to fight it:

Ross A. Alford, a tropical biologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, said such scientific tussles, while important, could be a distraction, particularly when considering the uncertain risks attending global warming.

“Arguing about whether we can or cannot already see the effects,” he said, “is like sitting in a house soaked in gasoline, having just dropped a lit match, and arguing about whether we can actually see the flames yet, while waiting to see if maybe it might go out on its own.”

That’s right Mr. Alford. Global Warming, even though it may not be killing frogs, is JUST like that. A house soaked in gasoline. Right. Why do I suspect another “never mind” coming.

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