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Here's a story that just won't die, even as folks continue to dig out of record snow in the Plains states and Fresno, Calif. records its lowest high temperature for the date after an early winter storm blows through.
Apparently now global warming has aimed its teeth at the tropics, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. Whew… we dodged that one again! First it was the Polar Regions that were under the global warming gun, now it's the tropics. Guess it pays to live between the two!
Probably the most comical part of the story is that it quotes a graduate student (not a tried-and-true expert, but someone who hasn't yet finished his studies) in… wait for it… geography. So now the "expert" weather prognosticators aren't meteorologists anymore but geographers. Aren't those the guys who draw up the maps that Siri made obsolete?
Maybe I need to go back for more learning because I thought since the third grade that geography and meteorology were two completely different scientific fields of study.
The geography student quoted in the story suggests that our climate will warm up to the point that our high temperature records will become normal low temperatures. That's a pretty bold statement. Then again college is a great time for guys to make bold statements about things they know little about, particularly after a few pitchers.
An assistant professor of geography ups the ante by predicting that within his generation things will change drastically.
That's good news. Now we can open up vast tracts of the Arctic tundra and other regions such as the continent of Antarctica to agricultural production. Since that pesky ice won't be an issue for growing things anymore, we can work on feeding a growing world population by shifting ag production towards the polar regions.
If common sense dictates, it would make sense that humans will want to follow the more temperate climate to those regions as well. Who knows, it may even reduce transportation costs for food and make it cheaper to buy it as much of the Earth's population will likely be concentrated at the poles.