We thought global warming would be gentle and kinda nice. Instead it's weird and extreme. Dr. Jennifer Francis of Rutgers founded theory of Jet Stream waves and Arctic Vortex. Then Dr. Daniel Brooks explains why parasites survive warming better than we do.
Interviews by Alex Smith
Film clip from Nick Breeze of www.envisination.co.uk
Music by Alex Smith
In the Affiliates version, there is a good break point at 24:30 for those who need to add station ID or announcements.
In the 1990's we talked about "global warming". Maybe that would be good for people living with cold winters - kind of like Florida slowly moving to your house. Then we learned other things would be affected, like rainfall and rising seas, so we called it "climate change".
Europe has been back and forth between cold, and strings of rainy storms. The Eastern United States has experienced a series of Arctic cold waves and record-setting snowfalls.
In a 2012 paper titled "Evidence linking Arctic amplification to extreme weather in mid-latitudes", Dr. Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University offered a clear answer. The Jet Stream, that high air current that can drive weather patterns, is now slower and wavier, due to warming in the Arctic. Her work has generated a little criticism and a lot of support.
Now three years later, Dr. Francis is back with an update. She says we have entered a new era driven by something called "Arctic amplification".
"Death by a thousand cuts" is how zoologist Dr. Daniel Brooks describes the developing invasion of foreign parasites and diseases as global warming ramps up. He says this isn't the golden age, and we aren't winning. New science from the micro-world.
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