AP writer warns that global warming may eventually shrink cows to the size of house-cats. Seriously

From the first moment the theory was announced, the Associated Press has a totally devoted to the notion that the earth's climate is warming--dangerously--and that this warming is specifically caused by carbon dioxide, specifically produced by human burning of oil, gas and coal. 

One of AP's consistent shills for this notion is one Seth Borenstein, and here's the latest from him.

(AP) — Global warming shrank certain animals in the ancient past, and scientists think it could happen again.

Warm-blooded animals got smaller at least twice in Earth’s history when carbon dioxide levels soared and temperatures spiked as part of a natural warming, a new study says.

Whoa!  Wait!  Seth and his editors have slipped up big-time, cuz GW "experts" claim that the current warming of the earth's climate can't be due to natural cycles!  If extreme, unprecedented warming ever occured before humans started burning carbon fuels--which is what they seem to mean by "natural warming"--it would mean that any warming we see now COULD be caused by--gasp!--natural cycles!

Whoa!  Somebody gonna be lookin' for a new job for lettin' that one thru, eh?

University of New Hampshire researcher Abigail D’Ambrosia warned that mammals could shrivel in the future under even faster man-made warming.  “It’s something we need to keep an eye out for,” said D’Ambrosia. “The question is how fast are we going to see these changes.”

Three different species shrank noticeably about 54 million years ago when the planet suddenly heated up. One of them — an early, compact horse — got 14 percent smaller, going from about 17 pounds to 14.6 pounds.

This latest work shows heating and shrinking are connected over millions of years.

Hmmm....Even if the climate warms by the feared, much-ballyhooed 2 degrees by the end of this century, how many millions of years do ya think it'll take before cows shrink noticeably?  Do ya really think this is a serious concern?

“These results are very significant because they provide another independent test of whether climate drives changes in body size in mammals,” said Jonathan Bloch at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  “If we start to see patterns repeat themselves, we can learn from that.

The bigger natural warming — 56 million years ago — saw temperatures rise 9 degrees F (5.8 degrees Celsius) or more, probably from giant belches of methane from dead plants and animals that had accumulated on the sea floor, said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer.

So let's review:  1) global warming--hot enough to shrink mammals, allegedly--happened millions of years before humans arrived;  2) said warming *could* have been caused not by CO2 but by...methane.  But wait, doesn't that kill the ENTIRE premise of catastrophic, carbon-dioxide-triggered AGW?

Why yes, yes it does.  But Seth and his editors didn't see that.  Instead their focus was "OMG!  When the planet gets warmer, a million later the cows will be the size of cats!"

Seriously.