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When we started traveling around the USA we heard the weather forecasters talking about the jetstream and showing pictures of where it was and how it was moving about and affecting the weather.
In my homeland of the UK it's only recently we've heard a little about this amazingly important phenomenon. It affects the US weather and it affects ours too - a lot! Nowadays it appears our weather gets stuck for a couple of weeks or longer in a jetstream-influenced pattern that isn't the norm for our latitudes. Then we get bizarre and extreme weather patterns.
Forecasters know about, and factor in, these variables but don't always explain why to us poor ordinary folk. It doesn't change anything by knowing why but understanding is important to me and is hugely important to myriad others who are more severely impacted.
I don't know if humankind will ever live in green homes in tune with nature but I did hear a report that one way to reduce the temperature in buildings is to shade their walls and growing clinging plants on them has a significant lowering of internal temperatures.
Of course walls - and especially roofs - also need to be insulated as much as possible using conventional techniques because the cost of cooling homes as well as public buildings looks set to soar. The electricity generation and distribution grids - US and UK alike - are barely adequate even for today's needs so any increased demand - and electronics is also making huge, new demands - could cause supply failures.
The future is far from rosy.....
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