Earth Equity News

Jet Stream Found to be Permanently Drifting North. AP, April 18, 2008. "The jet stream -- America's stormy weather maker -- is creeping northward and weakening, new research shows... That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North. And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes since the jet stream suppresses their formation... Climate models have long predicted that with global warming, the world's jet streams would move that way, so it makes sense to think that's what happening, said study co-author Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford said. However, proving it is a rigorous process, using complex computer models to factor in all sorts of possibilities. That has not been done yet. A rate of 1.25 miles a year 'doesn't sound like much, but that works out to about 18 feet per day,' Caldeira said. 'If you think about climate zones shifting northward at this rate, you can imagine squirrels keeping up. But what are oak trees going to do?'"