'Freak' weather marks out our future lives

Severe weather? Extreme storms? Expect more, says Brian, for they are on the way. Climate is what you expect - weather is what you get. Our future lives will be very different from the recent past. The single key factor that is missing from the current climate debate is the crucial consideration of the thermal energy of the atmospheric mantle. Weather is caused by energy; and that is in the form of thermal energy. As we continue to store thermal energy in the air, our weather becomes increasingly energetic - more extreme. Discussions centre on gobal warming, or climate change, but the true result will be extreme weather: phenomena we know already (wind, rain, snow, wildfires) but more of them, and worse. In Brian's latest American column for The Microscope the future is set out. And the importance of microbes in controlling the weather, which nobody in politics is discussing, is described in detail: see "Critical Focus" column on weather, 2016 for more information.