Recent studies show that the jet stream patterns have changed significantly during the last decade. The oscillations that bring the jet stream down to lower latitudes have increased in frequency and amplitude. This effect is a verification of the climate science models that predict the effects of global climate change as a result of carbon emissions to the atmosphere due to burning fossil fuels. How that happens is explained here in Why Life Exists on Earth.
I recently blogged about why everybody talks about the weather here. Now I’d like to tell you why you need to study the weather and figure out what you’re going to do about it. This is, as they say, “Serious as a Heart Attack.”
Consider the following:
• Oklahoma, home of Climate Denier In-Chief, Senator James Inhoe, endured the hottest summer of any state in 2010. This guy knows all about climate change. He is a US Senator.
• Extreme storm events were twice as common between 2001 through 2012 as they were in the previous 22 years.
• Arctic sea ice is 50 percent less in the summer than it was in 1900.
• Atmospheric CO2 has increased 40 percent since the beginning of the industrial and the burning of fossil fuels 150 years ago.
The long term trend:
• Extreme heat in western states
• Drought covering most of the area between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River, crop destroying heat waves.
• Colder winters in eastern North America and very wet seasons in western Asia.
What to Do and Where to Go
• Keep reading MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
• Learn to grow, preserve, and store food, save seeds, and build community.
• Move to a region that has been less affected by industrialization, agricultural contamination, and drought, and has a high density of organic farms.
Using the maps and links below will help you find a a place that is right for you.
Palmer Drought Severity Index
drought.unl.edu/Planning/Monitoring/ComparisonofIndicesIntro/PDSI.aspx
High Plains Regional Climate Center
Historical Maps of the Palmer Drought Index
drought.unl.edu/planning/monitoring/historicalpdsimaps.aspx
Map Measuring Human Influence On the Land, New York Times, Week in Review, July 31,2005.
www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/07/31/weekinreview/20050731_MARSH_MAP.html/
More Information on the Jet Stream
The Jet Stream is Getting Weird, Scientific American December, 2014.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-wacky-jet-stream-is-making-our-weather-severe/
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