The U.S. government National Climatic Data Center published a report Tuesday saying that last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years continuing a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record" that "was driven in part by the burning of fossil fuels"(Washington Post)
A Lilac blooms last November in Emigsville. Paul Kuehnel
I am in a positive mood tonight and see a silver lining in this cloud of doom. If the planet continues to warm and rain increases in the U.S. as the report suggests...
Texas will become tropical and sugar cane production can begin. The ample ethanol production will replace fossil fuel.
The value of timberland in Alaska will skyrocket. Clear-cut and make a profit now or strip the trees and burn on site, accelerating global warming so that crops can be planted there sooner.
If it's raining in Ocean City, vacation on the beach that once anchored the 4,000 year old, 41 square mile long Ayles Ice Shelf, that broke off an island 500 miles from the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic. The northern lights are spectacular.
And over the next decade, 2006 will be considered the "cold" year of the bunch. We're headed for a catastrophe that will make us long for the days when all we had to worry about was terrorism, gay marriages and working off the excess holiday pounds.