A❤️466-word🧡under 3-minute💚read
I couldn’t resist this story. Although fascinating, its allure is as an illustration of the complexity of climate change. It also reinforces the notion we would be wise to pay more attention to the cause and effect of human progress.
Until days ago, I hadn’t a clue that evapotranspiration was a thing. Then both the Boston Globe and Scientific America published articles on the phenomenon.
Evapotranspiration - aka “corn sweat” - for us laypeople, is exactly as it sounds. Like humans, corn has pores called stomata on the surface of its leaves. Also like humans, when subjected to heat, corn sweats through its stomata.
Why care?
Well, if you live in the Northeast, you just experienced high humidity made worse by – you guessed it – corn sweat.
Corn is the largest crop in the United States, followed by soybeans, which by the way, also sweats. The Corn Belt may be located in the Midwest and Plains regions, but the amount of moisture corn emits into the atmosphere can impact regions more than a thousand miles away.
How could that be?
It turns out that corn releases water vapor at one of the fastest rates of any plant. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an acre of corn can add about 4,000 gallons of water per day into the atmosphere.
During the dog days of summer, crops like corn and soy release massive amounts of water, adding to the discomfort of heat waves, now known as heat domes. (I guess a dome sounds more ominous than a wave.) Depending on atmospheric airflows, and the rotation of high-pressure systems, that moisture can make its way to New England.
The result: excessive heat and humidity, a weather double whammy.
Although like cat videos, this story is delightfully interesting, its significance goes beyond mere delight. It illustrates the vast complexity of actions and reactions caused by human existence.
Last week’s Planet Pulse included another such story: the impact of dams on the Earth’s rotation. Like corn sweat, who would have thought that damming water could push Earth’s poles away from the planet’s axis of rotation.
I’ve also covered how rising global heat could lead to major ocean currents “turning off.” This action-reaction is the result of the oceans acting as heat sink for excessive atmospheric temperatures.
Of course, climate scientists believe climate change either causes, or makes worse these “actions and reactions,” and they’re probably right. However, climate science has a long way to go before its accuracy achieves acceptable levels. And that’s the point.
Unless you have unquestioned faith in Elon Musk’s ability to develop an autonomous shuttle to Mars, this is the only planet (aka home) we have. Given our existence undoubtedly results in many such “actions and reactions,” it behooves us to better understand them.
#severeweather #heatwaves #climatechangeisreal #climatechange