Battersby Running Wild Summary

In the article Running wild by Stephen Battersby, the author mostly discusses the big picture of global warming and its weather patterns on Earth. Further discussion includes how scientist are testing climate models to improve weather predictions. Battersby opening paragraph describes the “summer in March” a 10-day event happening in March of 2012 in North America. Rainstorms brought floods to Pakistan in 2010 and 2011. There was extremes of cold and heat as well. In February on the northern edge of the Sahara desert, the streets of Lybia’s were covered with snow. This is where the author gets the title from, jittery climate. The big question is why? One weather pattern that affects the planet is called El Nino Southern Oscillation or ENSO, in which the ocean comes together with the atmosphere in a harshly consisting pattern. ENSO makes warm water move back and forth across the surface of the Pacific Ocean in some measure in response to drastic changes in the trade winds. Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study. The extremes of this climate patterns oscillations cause extreme weather. The most affected are …show more content…
There are two polar jet streams, one on each side of the hemisphere, and are driven by the difference in temperature between warm and cold poles. These air currents travel from west to east, the air gets changed because of earth’s spin, they move around shifting north and south. The study shows that “Humanity is now messing with this vital component of the atmosphere. The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet in part because its sunlight reflecting snow and ice is melting to expose dark, sunlight-absorbing land and sea.” The weather turns extreme when the streams position changes more slowly or stays in one place for weeks. Battersby, “Have confirmed that the jet stream has been weakening, and shown that this leads to more blocking