the tropics

Description

There are certain places that sustain me. Places where the elements of nature are so evocatively displayed, that my desire to return and experience them again never loses it's hold on me. Island of Hawaii: Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, The Saddle, Kilauea Volcano, Halemaumua Crater, Kilauea Iki The Big Island is 20 degrees latitude north of the equator giving it a climate with a narrow range of temperatures along with continuous prevailing winds. Above 30 degrees latitude north and 30 degrees latitude south of the equator cold air from the Arctic and cold air from Antarctica mingles with hot air from the tropics. It is largely this interaction of cold air from the poles with hot air from the tropics along with the oceans circulating currents that drives most weather as we experience it today. Peter Douglas Ward, a paleontologist and professor of Biology and Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle wrote the groundbreaking book "Under a Green Sky" in 2007. In this seminal work he asserts that as carbon dioxide levels continue to escalate we may have a planet that is so warm that eventually the ice caps will melt causing the planet’s air circulation systems to slow to a crawl. This he claims will create a largely calm windless world where the blue sky we see today will become a pale dull green.