Sunday, December 23, 2012


It has been quite warm here until this week but we may be seeing unusually  warmer weather for our area as The Old Farmer's Almanac explains:

 "If the upcoming solar max of Cycle 24 is normal or robust, and especially if an El Niño follows it 2 years later (as often happens), then the middle of this decade will be the hottest period since humans arrived on Earth."

A warmer climate might allow us to grow more food and reduce heating bills but there are the problems of higher air conditioning costs and crop failures due to heat and droughts which also drive up food costs.   

Perhaps more serious is the northerly advance of new species and diseases though. In the South there is an insect called the Kissing Bug that transmits a tropical disease called the Chagas disease.  In the northern U.S. deer are dying from Black Tongue disease which is becoming more prevalent in the northern Whitetail populations that lack natural immunity.   In northern states hikers and campers are finding that a variety of ticks are becoming more prevalent than in previous years.  Of course, there is the enormous economic cost of severe weather events like Hurricane Sandy.  




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