other changes coming

In addition to the financial meltdown that I'm expecting, there's also that old stand-by of disasters... global warming.  NASA has released an image (produced elsewhere) that shows the temperature changes expected over the next century.  The arctic changes the most, but South America gets a big hit too.

Another interesting point is that the center of the North American continent gets a higher boost in temperature than neighboring regions.  I've been in Minnesota for more than a decade, and I've noticed that each winter seems milder than the one before.  Apparently that trend is expected to continue.  As some Minnesotans are wont to say, "Global warming?  Bring it on!"

Warming is not so welcome in most areas.  Changing sea temperatures have a large impact on some animals that live there.  As was noticed almost a year ago, "A third of reef-building corals face extinction."  *sigh*  Of course, it's a little more complicated than just the temperature.  According to a related BBC article, there's also the matter of water pollution and overfishing to consider.

Changing temperature and rainfall patterns are taken into account when predicting extinction effects on land species.  Someone realized last summer, though, that the "species extinction threat underestimated due to math glitch", and that the danger is about 100x greater than previously reported.

Thank you for listening.  We now return you to your global financial meltdown.