Arctic Doom

USAToday is reporting that this summer could be especially at risk for drought in many areas of the US.  No area is expected to see wetter than normal conditions.

Some areas of the plains could see long strings of 90 or even 100 plus degree days.  With water tables already low, this could prove problematic for already dry states like Arizona and New Mexico.

It also raises the risk for devastating wild fires in many areas. This after one of the warmest winters on record which already has this year ahead of the curve to be the warmest on record.

If we ever get to the point at which we have an affordable and viable alternative to fossil fuels for our cars, the hard part will be getting people to switch.  Most people will stick to what they know, but over time the change will happen.

I can see the government offering a car donation service similar to what they did with Cash For Clunkers in which you get a subsidy for turning in your old dirty car for a clean new one.  I can imagine that many will take advantage of this.

Plans like this as well as the passage of time and increase of fuel prices compared to the magical alternative will eventually push things in the right direction.  Now if we could just solve that pesky problem of an affordable alternative.

I have to say that I don’t make time for games that often in my life anymore because I don’t have time.  We have three kids and a lot going on so it has to be a pretty big deal for me to be willing to carve out the money and time to play one.

Diablo 3 certainly qualifies.  I still remember when Diablo 2 came out.  My roommate and I played for about 12 straight hours the first day.  It is to this day one of the better games ever made as far as replay-ability goes.  In fact I tried really hard to get it to run on my newer PC without any success.

I’m only a few hours into version 3, and so far I really like it.  I will say that I think they may have simplified things a bit too much.  Your upgrade paths are set in stone and that severely limits the personalization of the heroes.

Having said that it, it’s still a very satisfying gaming experience.  I’m really excited to have a new version to play.

Not really warming related but I noticed that this year’s senior class’s moto is “The world’s not ending, we’re just taking over”.  Obviously a nod to the end of the world that has been predicted by many to occur on 12.21.12.

Next I’ll probably find out that their class song is some ominous number featuring some  warwick bass beats, and voice overs by James Earl Jones. 

Clearly they have nothing to worry about when it comes to the Mayans and their calendar (The mayans didn’t know about leap year and didn’t factor those in so in reality the world should have already ended) , but they do have to worry about a warmer world and the affects that that could have.

One of the things that I have read about that will happen as a result of climate change is a change in the ferocity of rain.  For instance, we may not receive more rain on average, but we may receive more of it at a time.

Long periods of dryness followed by torrential downpours that look like they require a fire hose adapter could become the norm.

To denialists, it may look like are amount of rain has stayed the same but it will be clear to most that the rain is coming in a much less beneficial form.  Parched earth being pummeled by downpours is a recipe for flooding not fertile earth.

We are the proverbial frog in the pot of luke warm water being heated to a boil.  As it turns out though, it’s a myth that the frog will just sit there and die.  It will hop out when the water gets too hot.  Fortunately for him there is somewhere to jump to that is safe.  We won’t have that luxury if we wait too long.

Recently, Heartland, a climate denial organization launched a campaign of billboards comparing global warming believers to the likes of the Una-bomber and Fidel Castro, among others.

The backlash has been so incredibly negative that many companies are pulling their support in response.  Heartland shut down the campaign shortly after it began but it was not in time to save their reputation in the public eye.

If you would like to show your disgust with this spread of disinformation please take time to sign the petition to the few remaining corporate sponsors, telling them that you won’t put up with this.

I found this chart on the epa’s web site.  It depicts what is going to happen as temperatures continue to increase causing glacial melting and higher volume of water through expansion by heat.  As you can clearly see, it’s already increasing rapidly and could increase it’s velocity as time goes on.  This could really kill devil hills real estate and make a lot of land unlivable in the next century.

Couple that with continued population growth and higher numbers of environmental disasters and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

So, shouldn’t we do something?

A recent newser article reports that the last 12 months was the hottest 12 month span on record, beating out the previous record holder (November 1999-October 2000) by 0.1°F.

We already know that of the hottest 12 years on record, only one predates 2000, and that one was WAY back in 1998.  So this should come as no surprise.

I saw that this movie was on over the weekend and decided to watch it again.  It’s a rather sensationalized view of what could happen as a result of climate change but it’s still an interesting movie.

I have no idea if the idea of the super storms has even the remotest basis in science but it makes for a great movie.  The dialogue, does seem to have the facts more or less straight though.

I couldn’t help but think about the aftermath.  What would happen after all the dust (snow) settled?  Where would all those people go?  The world infrastructure would be crippled beyond repair, and there would be literally billions of mouths to feed with half the original land available.

We would be back to the stone ages and using whatever we could to get by. Things like leather repair kits would be a necessity again.

I don’t talk a lot about overpopulation on this blog but it is the root of a lot of our problems and will eventually reach a tipping point.  It’s also a very delicate problem to solve and I for one have no idea what to do about it.