After Gutenberg

jcwinnie

Speaking of increased aeolian flux, Wikipedia tells of a gee-whiz boy hero.

Tom Terrific lived in a treehouse and could transform himself into anything he wanted thanks to his magic, funnel-shaped “thinking cap,” which also enhanced his intelligence. He had a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto was “Rotten to the core!” Other foes included Mr. Instant, the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam, the Candy Bandit and Isotope Feaney, The Meany.

Since it was simpler times in animation, we don’t know if his thinking cap was hot pink in color.

jcwinnie

Nick Sundt, Director of Climate Change Communications at the World Wildlife Fund, and a longtime forest firefighter observed:

Last Thursday, all but one of the Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas voted for H.R. 910 to reverse the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding that greenhouse gas pollution threatens the health and welfare of Americans with a wide range of impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts and wildfires. One Texas Republican (Rep. Michael Burgess) abstained and one Texas Democrat (Rep. Henry Cuellar) also supported the measure. The measure passed the House (255 Ayes, 172 Nays), with no Republicans voting against it. 19 Democrats also voted in favor of the legislation.

The vote came immediately after Texas experienced its driest March on record, and as nearly 98 percent of the state is experiencing drought conditions. This includes 60 percent that is experiencing “severe” drought and 5 percent experiencing “exceptional” drought, the most extreme category.

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Where ther is wildfire, there is drought.

A scorching drought in much of the Southwest is hurting farmers across several states and potentially crimping supplies of crops and cattle.

In Texas, where the past six months has been the driest such period on record since 1967, more than half of the state is parched by extreme drought, according to the Drought Monitor, a compendium of government and academic estimates.

New Mexico, too, is drying out, with almost 75% of the state in a severe drought, the monitor shows. In Oklahoma, the period between January and March was the driest since 1921, including the 1930s Dust Bowl years, said the state’s associate climatologist, Greg McManus.

Parts of the southern U.S. have battled drought on and off since 2006, but this year is shaping up to be particularly bad, because of an exceptionally dry winter and spring, when the region usually receives more rain.

The drought is hitting the Southwest at a time of rising commodity prices that have attracted the attention of policy makers in the U.S. and elsewhere. Because of the sizable agricultural industry in the Southwest, a decline in production could exacerbate an already tight supply situation.

Forecasts call for less-than-average rains in Texas and New Mexico in the next three months, and at least for the next month in Oklahoma, according to climatologists in those states. In response, at some of the country’s most productive farms and ranches, farmers are destroying unsalvageable wheat crops and selling off cows earlier than usual.

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“We’re actually seeing Texas burn from border to border,” Texas Forest Service spokeswoman April Saginor told CNN Radio.

“The fuels are so dry. The winds are astronomical. The behavior of the winds is a perplexing situation. It’s never been like this before.”