Washington, D.C. – Biologists and other scientists say you can blame global warming for earlier and earlier springs.
Researchers are finding tree buds emerging days or weeks earlier than they were 30 years ago. They say the same thing is happening with other plants and animals.
A Philadelphia allergist who has monitored tree pollen for years says he found maple pollen on March 9th, while less than 20 years ago he couldn't measure it until mid-April.
Scientists say satellite images from space found that the spring "green-up" north of the Mason-Dixon Line has been arriving about eight hours earlier each year since 1982.
The federal government and some university scientists are so alarmed by the changes that they created a national network at the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor all the changes.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)