The Ice Age Cometh! Forget Global Warming!

I talked to a big firewood seller yesterday here and he told me that they are completely booked out with deliveries scheduled for every day till the end of november.

There is also the fact that the price of energy like gaz or fuel is increasing sharply pushing people to rely more heavyly on wood.
Yes, when I spoke to a forester I work with, he also mentioned the fact that wood is still the cheaper alternative when the price of heating fuel goes up.
Another part is the corona lockdowns restricted the free movement of people in Europe. Many of those who do the manual work in the forests are seasonal workers coming on work visas from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland etc. As an example from a wholesaler who employs teams from Turkey. Last year these men were unable to travel back to their families for a month's summer holiday, so this year, they took 2 months off. This meant that the wholesaler had to limit the amount of firewood he could contract to cut.

It is a general problem of finding French people who want to work in the forestry sector in France. From what my forester acquaintance says, then most people prefer to find an office job working from 9-17. Manual labor is not something many wish to do though working in the forest gives many pleasures.
 
My parents in Croatia also buy wood for heating for years now, and my mother said that the prices of wood went up.

This summer I talked with my neighbor with whom I grown up and he is in this business and my parents buy wood from him.
He told me that the bugs in the forest are the worst part of the job, like they went crazy.
That there are some small moskito-like bugs that bite and no repellent works on them.
Some people even put gasoline (!!!) on their faces and arms to repell those bugs.
One man fainted on the highway and when he was brought to hospital, the doctors calculated over a thousand bites on his body (based on square centimeter or something)!

It’s a hard work…
 
If this guy is right, the recent "coldest winter on record" in Antarctica could be the trigger for onset of ice age conditions.

 
My parents in Croatia also buy wood for heating for years now, and my mother said that the prices of wood went up.
The prices of it are going up steadily for years now, price going from 280kn(native currency) to 400 for a meter today. We buy 15m-20m of wood for central heating every summer and if you do not get it by the end of Septmber chances are you won t get it at all. When the things go south if there is forrest nearby you are lucky if you have chainsaw and gas and chain oil, but still need to dry it. You said right it is a very very hard work and dangerous because of tree fell working every day in woods and your physical health takes a toll.
 
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It is a general problem of finding French people who want to work in the forestry sector in France. From what my forester acquaintance says, then most people prefer to find an office job working from 9-17. Manual labor is not something many wish to do though working in the forest gives many pleasures.
It is not just forestry but every physical work from construction and other things all the way to going to war(french foreign legion), and not just France, but especially Germany, and many other european countries. They are for the last decades built by foreigners because natives do not want to get dirty and because of cheap labor. Somebody would say no borders in EU was by design to get workforce from poorer countries. But it seems it was not enough or too expensive so they started using migrants from far away and got in the mess with them they are today.
 
If this guy is right, the recent "coldest winter on record" in Antarctica could be the trigger for onset of ice age conditions.

Apparently Arctic is also going to play a role. And not surprisingly, all this increased precipitation that caused flooding, in winter will fall as snow. Here's a recent article (translated from Russian):

An abnormally snowy winter awaits the inhabitants of Russia. The south of the country, Siberia, and the northern regions of the Far East will experience the main brant of the elements....

Meteorologists explain that this year the Arctic will have a significant impact on the formation of weather in Russia. The circumpolar vortex forming in the atmosphere over the North Pole will be more powerful than in previous years. As a result, the Arctic jet stream will reach the southern latitudes.

For the first time in many years, ice reduction in the Arctic has stopped.
The Arctic Circle decided to "take a break" from global warming. The ice in the Arctic Ocean turned out to be almost a million square kilometers more than in 2020.

The lower reaches of Volga, the Kolyma region and the south of Siberia will experience the most anomolies, with the height of the snow cover being twice the regular long-term values. The height of snowbanks in the Russian capital is expected to be a quarter higher than normal.

Experts remind that today weather anomalies already dominate in some parts of the Russian Federation. 11 cm of snow fell in the Chelyabinsk region, and in the south of Russia, unusual temperatures have been established since mid-September, which are 3-4 degrees lower the perennial ones.

I actually live in the southern Siberia, so this is going to be "interesting"!
 
I laid in about 3 years worth of firewood this spring. I got lucky with a good deal on good wood. And had a good used wood stove that can heat my whole house put in in my downstairs (and a better insert put in upstairs) at the same time. Decided it was a top priority after seeing what happening in Texas in terms of the power outages, huge electrical cost increases during the freeze in Texas, and people and pipes freezing and also things looking to get much colder as we move forward and the possible ice age stuff.

The only reputable person locally that does fireplace and chimney work was working pretty much nonstop from March until I talked to him last in late June or July. He said he usually had a break in requested work in the late spring into summer normally. I wouldn't be surprised if he worked non-stop from then until now.

He also said that he could not find anyone reliable to take on as an assistant and that most people willing to give it a try were doing or on drugs.
 
He had another blloper :) Surprisingly after the meeting with Sergey Lavrov.

"The president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said this Sunday that the energy crisis in Europe could last from six months to two years, informs RIA Novosti.

This crisis it won’t fix itself. In the next 6 months the crisis will not be solved. I fear that it may continue even for two years, “the president said at the press conference after his meeting in Belgrade with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.



The president of Serbia believes that the energy crisis in Europe could last up to 2 years - Market Research Telecast

Vucic told how long the energy crisis in Europe will last | tellerreport.com
 
He had another blloper :) Surprisingly after the meeting with Sergey Lavrov.
With Russia, it further said:

On October 9, the Serbian president declared that the gas crisis in Europe was partially triggered by the fact that Europeans they did not “sign long-term contracts” for the supply of Russian gas to the European Union. At the same time, he specified that Serbia is conducting negotiations with Russia to buy the hydrocarbon at reduced prices.

Hope they can work something out that will help the Serbs.
 
Here are some more news from Russia about this winter. Article in Russian.

Apparently bears in Buryatia and Irkutsk area went to hibernate much earlier than usual. Usually they begin to hibernate in the end of November. But this time 10 days ago they already disappeared from the wild life cameras, even if the temperatures are not lower than zero during the day.

The scientists say that "this is an indication that autumn is going to be long and winter bitter cold". And that bears preserve their energy and fat supply by hibernating earlier.
 
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Here are some more news from Russia about this winter.
You beat me to it as I just saw very similar news from a commenter on Zerohedge. Here is what he said:


In the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, camera traps have stopped recording bears, although the daytime temperature has not yet become subzero. Usually bears stay awake until the end of November - mid-December, and single bears can stay awake even until mid-December to gain more fat.

"Ten days ago, all the bears disappeared in the forest. They are already preparing to lie down in a den for the winter. And according to the behavior of bears, you can confidently make a forecast - autumn will be long, and winter will be harsh. This has already been verified — bears feel the weather better than any weather service." Director of the reserve.

Europeans should not be afraid of this. This forecast concerns Siberia.

I think Europeans should pay attention, but most likely too little too late as they are mostly acting like ships without rudders or badly damaged ones at least.
 
I think Europeans should pay attention, but most likely too little too late as they are mostly acting like ships without rudders or badly damaged ones at least.

Well, we do know that Europeans should pay attention, but I do wonder if bears in other areas respond similarly. It would be curious to get reports from other "bear countries" and if their bears are still happily engaged in fat storing, or they already went to hibernate.
 
Well, we do know that Europeans should pay attention, but I do wonder if bears in other areas respond similarly. It would be curious to get reports from other "bear countries" and if their bears are still happily engaged in fat storing, or they already went to hibernate.
Where I live in Ontario, Canada (near the city of Ottawa) there has been an uptick of bear sightings in the past few years. When I was younger it was extremely rare to hear about a bear sighting around here, let alone see one. This article is from a local newspaper (published earlier this year) -
Bear sightings in the Vankleek Hill area - The Review Newspaper

This may be related to the bear stories but, a friend of mine had said that he knew a few people who hunted moose and they had noticed that the moose have a LOT more body fat on them this year. According to the hunters this is a good indication that this winter will be long and cold.
 
Well, we do know that Europeans should pay attention, but I do wonder if bears in other areas respond similarly. It would be curious to get reports from other "bear countries" and if their bears are still happily engaged in fat storing, or they already went to hibernate.
Maybe we are going to have a bear market this Autumn, or we will need to ask around, because when one looks up the Wikis, can live in many places and hibernate in most.. However, the Wiki on the polar bear explains that they do not hibernate, but hunts all year round, though it is capable of fasting for several months during the summer and autumn.
About bears in general:
Ursus is a genus in the family Ursidae (bears) that includes the widely distributed brown bear,[3] the polar bear,[4] the American black bear, and the Asian black bear. The name is derived from the Latin ursus, meaning bear.[5][6]
The Wiki for the brown bear explains lists its many subspecies.
About the Eurasian brown bear there is
The oldest fossils are from the Choukoutien, China, and date back about 500,000 years.[13] It is known from mtDNA studies that during the Pleistocene ice age it was too cold for the brown bear to survive in Europe except in three places: Russia, Spain, and the Balkans.[14]
Bears could not survive because of the cold? If you look at where the brown bears can be found today, that is a bit surprising, or is there another explanation that has nothing to do with climate?
800px-Ursus_arctos_range_map.svg.png
The diet of the bears shows amazing flexibility:
Brown bears were present in Britain until no later than AD 1000, when they had been exterminated through over-hunting.[8]
[....]
In antiquity, the Eurasian brown bear was largely carnivorous, with 80% of its diet consisting of animal matter. However, as its habitat increasingly diminished, the portion of meat in its diet decreased with it until by the late Middle Ages, meat consisted of only 40% of its dietary intake. Today, meat makes up little more than 10–15% of its diet.[9] Whenever possible, the brown bear will consume sheep.[10]
Reading that the bears in some regions of Russia had already gone into winter sleep early, I wondered how long they can stay that way. If the data from North America is anything to go by, a brown bear can hibernate for up to eight months, so even if they begin early they may last until next Spring.
How Long Do Bears Hibernate
Different species of bears hibernate for slightly different lengths of time, based mostly on their climate.

Black bears can hibernate for up to seven and a half months without drinking water, eating food or defecating.

Grizzly bears typically hibernate between five to seven months.

Mexican Black Bears usually do not hibernate at all or will hibernate for just a few weeks out of the year. Due to a warm environment, hibernation is not necessary for these bears.

Alaskan Brown Bears can hibernate from five to eight months. As Alaskan Brown Bears are found in a colder climate, they typically spend a long time in hibernation compared to other bear species.
Did the bears go into hibernation early this year because of the cosmic climate? Or was it strictly local conditions that prevailed?

Can some animals sense a rough climate ahead the same way as some animals get out of the way before a tsunami strikes a coast line, or become nervous before an earthquake? Are the animals sensing a drastic change? Even if one does not get a cataclysmic change, it can still be drastic, I once experienced a drop from 20+ C to minus 16 C in two days. I walked outside in the afternoon. It was all silent, except a few distant cars and the sounds of feet walking in snow as all the trees around in the park were loosing a steady stream of green, crisp, frozen leaves that one by one fell to join the others already on a ground covered with 20 cm of snow. It was unbelievable and unforgettable.
 

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