The logic is impeccable. Cold temperature limits plant growth so as temperatures rise, the upper line where plants including trees can and do grow will travel uphill. It is even, awkwardly for climate alarmists, one of the ways we know it was warmer during the Medieval Warm Period: trees grew at higher altitudes (and latitudes). And so it was in 2002 that a group of scientists carefully and logically made the case that the optimal range of trees would start shifting uphill. “If it is assumed that growth and reproduction are controlled by temperature, a rapid advance of the tree line would be predicted,” they said. “Indeed, some authors have provided photographic evidence and remotely sensed data that suggest this is, in fact, occurring.” Evidence no less. And it all stands to reason, but for one thing: in climate science you can always #HaveItBothWays.

So strong is this effect that the publication of a perfectly rational argument that climate change causes X now seems to trigger a cosmic mechanism that ensures the opposite of X will promptly occur. Thus nearly a decade after that paper, scientists published the results of their investigation showing... climate change was causing plants to move downhill. They did acknowledge that the results were unexpected. And why? Because some plants had been observed moving uphill in response to climate change:

“Uphill shifts of species’ distributions in response to historical warming are well documented, which leads to widespread expectations of continued uphill shifts under future warming.”

The only problem being that a lot of plants were now moving downhill. Why would that be? Climate change, naturally. Did you really have to ask?

“By comparing the altitudinal distributions of 64 plant species between the 1930s and the present day within California, we show that climate changes have resulted in a significant downward shift in species’ optimum elevations.”

This time the story was that temperature shmemperature, warmth no longer matters. Instead plants were looking for water and the precipitation was falling lower down on hillsides, so the plants followed suit.

Yeah sure. Whatever, dude. What goes up and all that. And no matter what the science says, and no matter what the experts say, nature gets the last word and seems determined to #HaveItBothWays.

P.S. It is also worth considering that if temperature makes plants head for the hills, and they’re not, then maybe much of the supposed observed rise since 1850 really is the dreaded Urban Heat Island effect.