We're in Siberia, shivering. It's November, November 11, 2003, and two boys, Kolya and Maksim Muravyev, are ice fishing along the Lena River, where it's 13 below zero. All of a sudden, up in the sky, they see what looks like a flamingo. "We thought it was a swan or a stork," Kolya says, a flamingo being so preposterously improbable.
© Illustration by Maggie Starbard/NPR
It was large, and made ever lower circles in the sky. It seemed to be losing energy until finally it fell and lay quietly on the snow. The two boys ran over, called their father, Vasily, who picked up the bird and took it home. It was still alive. "[This is the] first time I see a bird like this," he told a TV reporter.
They fed the flamingo fish and buckwheat saturated in water (not normally flamingo food) and pretty soon it was up, active and knocking around the Muravyev's apartment. Here it is, head in a feeding bucket.
Comment: Indeed, catastrophic weather is now becoming the norm rather than the exception. What the author fails to mention however is the growing scientific evidence that the planet is beginning to cool down, leading to a very possible ice age... please consider the following (which is really a small cross-section from our archives):
Global Warming? It's the coldest winter in decades
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The Coming Ice Age
Global Warming Is a Fraud
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New Ice Age 'to begin in 2014'
Global warning: We are actually heading towards a new Ice Age, claim scientists
Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age
Public not being told the whole truth about global warming
What the Science Really Says About Global Warming
Over 500 scientists published studies countering global warming fears
Global Warming? Global Cooling Forecast Backed By Real Science