Quick hit number two

Global warming strikes another blow, the August 20 issue of New Scientist lets us know:

The Great Lakes of the US, the planet's largest concentration of fresh water, is thawing earlier each spring, according to an analysis of ice break-ups dating back to 1846.

On 56 of the 61 lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Ontario studied, the spring thaw occurred two days sooner each decade on average.

Though the thaw has been happening ever earlier since 1846, the calculations show the rate of change is now more than three times as fast as it was before 1975.

Which again confounds the "it's all natural" crowd: It seems there is no model of natural warming that could account for that acceleration of thawing over the last 30 years.