Global warming could as well be described as global storming. A new study released by NASA at the end of August indicates that the updrafts that create the most violent kind of thunderstorms and tornadoes are likely to become more common in a warmer climate. According to the model, we can expect fewer storms in general, but more highly damaging tornadoes and thunderstorms.
This kind of weather pattern represents the worst aspects of clear weather and stormy weather. We need storms, of course, to provide rain. However, crops respond best to a consistent, mild rains without damaging winds and hail. The climate model NASA refers to suggests a new trend toward more sudden, harsh downpours accompanied by high winds, with longer periods of dry weather in between, and fewer mild showers to even out the differences.
This sort of climate pattern of this sort, defined more by the extreme sorts of weather, will be a danger to the agricultural base of the American economy, but it will also be a threat to Americans’ lives. Strong thunderstorms and tornadoes don’t just cause economic damage, after all. They also kill people.
This looming meteorological threat has been, and still may be, preventable. The body of peer-reviewed scientific research strongly indicates that global warming is largely due to human activity. Our pollution of the air through the use of unclean energy sources is linked to the dangerous shift in weather.
The problem is a matter of life and death, of prosperity and poverty. In 2008, we need to elect a President who is willing to take work to remove the fuel from the gathering storms.
(Source: Goddard Institute for Space Studies, August 30, 2007)
