Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 07/06/2009 9:14:07 PM PDT by presidio9
Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world's tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found.
Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles.
They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone.
The findings showed it now extended well beyond the traditional definition of the tropics, the equatorial band circling the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Professor Steve Turton said that meant the subtropical arid zone which borders the tropics was being pushed into temperate areas, with potentially devastating consequences.
"Such areas include heavily-populated regions of southern Australia, southern Africa, the southern Europe-Mediterranean-Middle East region, the south-western United States, northern Mexico, and southern South America," he said.
"All of (them) are predicted to experience severe drying.
"If the dry subtropics expand into these regions, the consequences could be devastating for water resources, natural ecosystems and agriculture, with potentially cascading environmental, social and health implications."
Turton said tropical diseases such as dengue fever were likely to become more prevalent.
"Some models predict the greatest increase in the annual epidemic potential of dengue will be into the subtropical regions, including the southern United States, China and northern Africa in the northern hemisphere,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Yes, I am east of Sac and it is the coolest I have seen it and I have lived in this area most of my life(a long one). We had a few hot days since June but mostly cooler than normal, including today.
SOLDIER Get away!
ARTHUR I am... And this my trusty servant, Patsy. We have ridden thelength and breadth of the land in search of knights who will join ourcourt at Camelot.. I must speak with your lord and master.
SOLDIER What? Ridden on a horse?
ARTHUR Yes!
SOLDIER You're using coconuts!
ARTHUR...What?
SOLDIER You've got two empty halves of coconuts and you're banging them together.
ARTHUR (Scornfully) So? We have ridden since the snows of wintercovered this land, through the kingdom of Mercea.
SOLDIER Where did you get the coconuts?
ARTHUR Through ... We found them.
SOLDIER Found them? In Mercea. The coconut's tropical!
ARTHUR What do you mean?
SOLDIER Well, this is a temperate zone.
ARTHUR The swallow may fly south with the sun, or the house martin orthe plover seek warmer hot lands in winter, yet these are notstrangers to our land.
SOLDIER Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
ARTHUR Not at all. They could be carried.
SOLDIER What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
ARTHUR Why not?
SOLDIER I'll tell you why not ... because a swallow is about eight inches long and| weighs five ounces, and you'd be lucky to find a coconut under a pound.
ARTHUR It could grip it by the husk ...
SOLDIER It's not a question of where he grips it, It's a simple matterof weight - ratios ... A five-ounce bird could not hold a a one pound coconut.
ARTHUR Well, it doesn't matter. Go and tell your master that Arthurfrom the Court of Camelot is here.
SOLDIER Look! To maintain Velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wingsfour hundred and ninety three times every second. right?
ARTHUR (irritated)Please!
SOLDIER Am I right?
ARTHUR I'm not interested.
SECOND SOLDIER It could be carried by an African swallow!
FIRST SOLDIER Oh yes! An African swallow maybe ... but not a Europeanswallow. that's my point.
SECOND SOLDIER Oh yes, I agree there ...
ARTHUR Will you ask your master if he wants to join the Knights of Camelot?!
FIRST SOLDIER But then of course African swallows are non-migratory.
SECOND SOLDIER Oh yes.
FIRST SOLDIER So they wouldn't be able to bring a coconut back anyway.
SECOND SOLDIER Wait a minute! Suppose two swallows carried it together?
FIRST SOLDIERNo, they'd have to have it on a line.
The planet has cooled by 0.74 degrees centigrade since 1999.
“”There is also evidence that many Australian animal and plant species are moving south in an attempt to track their preferred climatic conditions,” she said.
“Some won?t make it.”
That’s because they’ve put down roots in their community. But we can help, If you see plants that need a ride south, give’em a ride and if you see any of those Aussie dingbat dogs let ride along on your way south.
I think it’s carbon tax deductionable.
58 degrees on July 4 morning at 2100’ elevation in the southern Blue Ridge mts a few nights ago.
The last time anybody went two years without seeing sunspots was the Maunder Minimum. This IS the second summer of the second little ice age, i.e. LIA-II. We need to start phrasing the discussion using these terms. How stupid do you have to be to pass a crippling anti global-warming bill in the second summer of LIA-II??
It's not stupidity. I assure you, it is quite intentional and purposefully destructive.
You’re telling me that researchers can look at a planet that has a diameter of nearly 25,000 miles,
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What planet are you on? Twenty five thousand miles is the approximate CIRCUMFERENCE of this planet, not its diameter.
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