Have you noticed that the temperatures in your area are strangely hot? I mean, come on! It’s barely into June and some states are putting out health warnings already. I live in Chicagoland and warnings have already come out this morning about killer heat in the area.

I don’t know about you but to me this is a horror story that beats anything Hollywood can produce. The chain reaction that will be set into motion by rising temps will cause more fear than that ghost you think is roaming your house ever will. Are you afraid of running into Bigfoot on your next hike? Well, you should be more afraid of dropping dead from heat exhaustion.

When I was growing up in NWPA the seasonal temps were always very predictable. Cool in May, slowly warming in June, Typically 80s in July and occasionally over 90 in August. However, by the end of August it would already be in the high 50s at night as the area cooled down again for winter.

I don’t care if you are Liberal, Conservative or otherwise. If you put aside your attitude about politics and really look at what’s happening you will realize that the planet is getting hotter and the most frightening thing about it is that it’s heating up at an unbelievable pace.

As I said, temperatures are rising at breakneck speeds and the heat is just the tip of the iceberg. We are not set up to handle this and by this I mean all the extenuating problems associated with the heat. We’ve all heard about rising sea levels but many of us don’t even think about the many other issues such as mass extinction of sea life, overwhelming reduction in crop production, an electrical grid that just won’t be able to handle the load placed on it, natural events happening more often and with more intensity such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, etc… Not to mention the many, many people that just won’t be able to live thru such high temps. Of course they may be the lucky ones as the rest of us stand in line to buy a head of lettuce or a loaf of bread.

All in all, it’s a future that doesn’t need paranormal activity to scare us.

LiveScience Staff
LiveScience.com – Mon Jun 6, 7:00 pm ET

Expect extra-toasty summers to be a mainstay if greenhouse gas levels continue to rise, according to a new report suggesting the tropics and the Northern Hemisphere may see an irreversible bump in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years.

In the study to be published later this month in the journal Climate Change, Stanford University researchers conclude that many tropical regions in Africa, Asia and South America could see “the permanent emergence of unprecedented summer heat” in the next two decades.

The middle latitudes of Europe, China and North America, including the United States, are likely to undergo extreme summer temperature shifts within 60 years, the researchers found.

“According to our projections, large areas of the globe are likely to warm up so quickly that, by the middle of this century, even the coolest summers will be hotter than the hottest summers of the past 50 years,” said lead study researcher Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science and fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Though no single extreme weather event can be linked to global warming, scientists say that as the planet warms, we should expect more extremes, such as heat waves. Diffenbaugh and Stanford research assistant Martin Scherer wondered whether one extreme pattern — heat waves — would become more normal. “At what point can we expect the coolest seasonal temperatures to always be hotter than the historically highest temperatures for that season?” Diffenbaugh said in a statement.

The researchers analyzed more than 50 climate model experiments, which included computer simulations of the 21st century (when greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase) and those of the 20th century that have accurately predicted climate over the last 50 years. They also looked at historical data from weather stations around the world.

Results showed the tropics are heating up the fastest. “We find that the most immediate increase in extreme seasonal heat occurs in the tropics, with up to 70 percent of seasons in the early 21st century (2010 to 2039) exceeding the late-20th century maximum,” the authors wrote.

Even so, wide swaths of North America, China and Mediterranean Europe are also likely to enter into a new heat regime by 2070, they found.

Diffenbaugh was surprised at how quickly the new, potentially destructive heat regimes are likely to emerge, given that the study was based on a relatively moderate forecast of greenhouse gas emissions in the 21st century.

“The fact that we’re already seeing these changes in historical weather observations, and that they match climate model simulations so closely, increases our confidence that our projections of permanent escalations in seasonal temperatures within the next few decades are well-founded,” Diffenbaugh said.

This dramatic shift in seasonal temperatures could have severe consequences for human health and agricultural production, Diffenbaugh said, citing as an example the 2003 heat waves in Europe that killed 40,000 people. Studies have also shown that projected increases in summer temperatures in the Midwestern United States could reduce the harvest of corn and soybeans by more than 30 percent, he added.

Source:Yahoo News-Live Science

As a Conservative, I didn’t pay much attention when this whole “Global Warming” stuff started. Then as the subject began to get legs under it I took a neutral position and started to research and feel it out. I didn’t deny or support it and I was careful not to be drawn into the extremist mindset on either side. The deeper I got the more bleak it looked. Charting temps over the past 100 years, checking rainfall, looking at seasonal changes, major storms, glacier reduction, etc…There began a pattern and no matter how much I wanted to find a glitch, It was getting more and more difficult to ignore.

Of course there are always going to be those that are in complete denial. If you want to keep denying this is happening, well, go ahead. Maybe being in denial will get you thru a few years but reality will hit you in the face sooner or later. Don’t believe me, by all means, do your own research.

We need to do something, now! We can’t just have these slow reductions on CO2 emissions, we need to reduce them immediately. Sadly though, everything seems to effect everything else and it’s so much easier said than done. The world is much to large and complex to initiate rapid and radical change.

I don’t know about you but IMO this is the most frightening story I can think of at the moment.