Hi, All!
I'm ba-a-a-ack!
Thank you, Rangerken, for starting this thread... even if the news it bears isn't as happy-happy-joy-joy as you had hoped.
NASA does seem to be taking global warming seriously. They've actually established an entire section of their website which is devoted completely to Global Climate Change.
I am, of course, delighted to hear that the planet is shedding more of its excess heat than was previously thought. That will not only slow down the rate of global warming, giving us some much-needed additional time to find carbon-fixing solutions, but will also influence the placement of the "tipping point" beyond which any solution comes too late. It doesn't change the fact of global warming, but it does change the equations a bit -- enough, maybe, to avoid being overtaken by world-wide famine before we can find a solution. Let's hope so, anyway...
... Somalia is not a nice place to be right now. As I noted in the last thread to which I contributed last month before packing up the apartment and moving out of Kansas, it is indeed the carbon-less poor of Africa who are suffering famine first.
The last two weeks have been my own global-warming odyssey, as I fled its effects on Wichita, KS (which has been experiencing triple-digit temps since early May, broken only by one- or two-day thunderstorm-induced retreats into the upper nineties). I drove away from Kansas in my west-coast-purchased car, which doesn't have air-conditioning because we've never needed it in our home state, so fleeing Kansas meant that the temperature dropped by two degrees every hour I drove for the first five hours -- yay for 95F in Nebraska!
Whew!
That evening, as I drove through the sauna-like heat with one ice-pack tucked under my shirt and another one tucked under my faithful kitten, I tuned in to NPR's interview with the author of The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and other Scenes from a Climate Changed Planet.
TERRY GROSS, host:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
This summer of record-breaking heat followed a spring that brought some of the most extreme weather on record. My guest, climatologist Heidi Cullen writes: It's time to face the fact that the weather isn't what it used to be.
She's the author of the book�"The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate Changed Planet." It's just been published in paperback. And she's a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a journalism and research organization.
We're going to talk about how climate change appears to be creating extreme weather in winter and summer. And we're going to consider the cities Cullen says are likely to be the most vulnerable to extreme weather.
Heidi Cullen, welcome to FRESH AIR.
What makes this month's heat wave in the U.S. unusual - different from other heat waves?
Ms. HEIDI CULLEN (Research Scientist, Climate Central): I think what's really special about this heat wave is just the sheer size and scope of it. I mean, it basically at one point it was affecting more than 140 million people here in the U.S. And so it's massive in size. It's been a long heat wave and so in many respects this is exactly the kind of thing we can expect to see a lot more of as the planet warms up.
GROSS: Before we get to why you think this is a result of climate change, which is, I think, what you're saying, what are some of the records that this month's heat wave has set so far? And I'll say, we're recording this on Friday, July 22nd. So...
Ms. CULLEN: Yeah. So we could see even more records set today. But, you know, for example, Wichita Falls, Texas had over 54 days of 100 plus temperatures, 27 consecutive days reaching at least 100. Tyler, Texas, we saw 32 days this year of 100 degree readings. So, I mean, it's just that the magnitude and the length of what we're seeing here - Mobile, Alabama, 50 consecutive 90-degree days. So it has just been excruciatingly long period of hot weather.
Oh, yeah, it was excruciating. I'm SO HAPPY to be home again, where a "hot" day is 85F, and 95F breaks records! Woo-hoo for the West Coast! ;-D
To answer the question that I know is on everybody's mind (not?) -- just how IS the corn doing in Kansas?
Most of it looked okay. Some of the cornfields were in obvious distress, however -- the corn was only four feet tall and obviously not yet ready to harvest, but the leaves and stalks were brown and dried, looking more like material for Halloween decorations than living, growing grain. Clearly, there will be some losses... but in late July, the percentage of sunburnt fields in Kansas still looked to be less than 3%. Of course, that figure could rise as the heat continues through August, particularly if rainfall is less than usual.
Once I was out of Kansas, I saw no more dried-up corn fields. In fact, the crops throughout Nebraska and Washington were beautiful. In Nebraska, the corn and other crops were green and lush with growth. The extra heat has helped there, at least while there's still plenty of water for irrigation. In Washington, the wheat was golden and ready for harvest, with ripe grain so plump and shining that you could see the individual seedheads even from the highway, passing by at 75mph. Ooo, it was pretty...
:-D
So here's a great big hug and a kiss to all of you, to celebrate reasonable climes and an end to full-body heat rash!
(((ALL)))
Love,
-- Claudia
