A Few Notes on Climate Change, 3:
So
Long Dixie
Whatever the facts are, and
whichever the lies are, it’s a great show in any case. The latest plot twist
was brought to me by “New Scientist” magazine, which reports, in their October
23-29, 2012 issue, about the danger of heat stress. It seems that prolonged exposure
to “wet-bulb” (100% humidity) temperatures of 35 degrees C is fatal to human
beings. It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity, and it really can get you. First
the elderly go, then the young and the sick, and then even the healthy die if
they cannot get to shelter artificially cooled. Fortunately such weather is
rare in our present climate.
But turn up the global thermostat,
and it’s a different story; or so New Scientist reports. It says that for every
1 degree C that global temperature rises, maximum wet-bulb temperature
increases by 0.75 C; and if global temperatures go up 12 C, then the following
lands become uninhabitable without cooling systems: most of Brazil, most of
West Africa, most of Australia, Egypt through Jordan, parts of Spain and China,
most of the USA’s South, most of the USA’s Eastern Seaboard, and (gulp) almost
all of India.
12 C is a long way to go, and New
Scientist, ever alarmist, wonders out loud if that’ll happen by century’s end.
And of course they bang the AGW drum. But let’s suppose that it’s all the sun’s
fault; and let’s suppose further that only 4 C per century is the rate. Even
then, that’s only 300 years until the above-mentioned lands become hostile to
human life. Does India decamp? Where to? Do they put solar-powered AC in every
hovel for a billion villagers? Do they build a geodesic dome over New Delhi?
And over Dakar? And Cairo? And Tel
Aviv? And Shanghai? And Bejing? And Perth? And Madrid? And Memphis, Jackson,
Montgomery, Atlanta, Salem, Richmond, Louisville and Nashville?
I suppose that’s possible, given
time and money, but I’m sure you’ll agree that these are non-trivial technical
challenges. I see a science-fiction story in this!
No comments:
Post a Comment