Climate and Population?

The problem with correlations is that we can't stop inferring causation when we find one. The National Bureau of Economic Research seems to find data to support the idea that when the temperature goes above 80 F there is a declining birthrate 9 months later.

Of course the MSM turns this into headlines claiming global warming will exacerbate population declines. As John Hinderaker points out at Power Line, this is arrant nonsense. If hot weather is anti-sex, how is torrid India about to become the world's most populous country?

Meanwhile, what keeps running through my mind is doggerel student friends from Minnesota would recite in late springtime:

Hey, hey,

The first of May,

Outdoor screwing

Starts today.

The rhyme doesn't work in California but winters in the upper Midwest are both long and cold.