Nature's Global Warming Warning

This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Winter here was pretty warm until February; then it grew more typical and lingered just enough to annoy us.

It's hard telling what's normal anymore.

There was a big story in the paper the other day about the Sky Islands, high-altitude regions of Arizona where it sure looks like climate has changed. It's not cold enough to kill the beetles that are chewing on the forests there.

Forest fires are more frequent; it's just drier, I guess.

I saw another story about migratory birds not going as far south as they formally did. You would think that DNA that tells them to move every season would tell them where to go as well. Don't the swallows return to Capistrano every year?

Unless, of course, the rest of the information the birds are processing tell them it's not worth the effort.

In which case, how is the environment where the birds usually go coping with their absence? What plants aren't being pollinated, seeds not being transported or pests gobbled up?

No global warming, right?

By Harry Smith