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The Climate Watch section of Unknowncountry.com was updated this week, and indicates that exceptional heat is gripping the whole northern hemisphere, even as intense cold affects the southern. Dangerous drought conditions are affecting the Southwestern US and the Horn of Africa, and if these droughts do not break by October, there will be serious water shortages in the US and a catastrophic failure of viability in Ethiopia. The high Arctic is experiencing exceptional polar melt and the Gulf Stream continues to weaken at this time.
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This season’s massive Arizona fires have destroyed dozens of structures and burned nearly three-quarters of a million acres. But they’ve also done something else: They also are contributing to global warming by upsetting the carbon balance while they are burning and for years to come. Trees breathe in carbon dioxide, but how long they hold onto it affects the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Ecologist Mike Stoddard says, "These large fires are devastating our forests. We’re concerned that (trees are) not regenerating after these wildfire events."
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Archeologists have found evidence from 20,000 to 30,000-year-old human skulls that both human height and brain size are shrinking. The cause of this? Farming. This shrinkage started about 10,000 years ago, when humans moved from the hunter-gatherer life to agriculture.

In PhysOrg.com, Deborah Braconnier writes, "While the change to agriculture would have provided a plentiful crop of food, the limiting factor of farming may have created vitamin and mineral deficiencies and resulted in a stunted growth. Early Chinese farmers ate cereals such as rice which lacks the B vitamin niacin which is essential for growth."
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It’s spring! Many people are relieved that this spring, which brought terrible weather to many places, has past, and that summer is here. Does spring weather really change our behavior? Recent studies show that temperature influences us at an unconscious level. For instance, good weather makes us more likely to donate money to charity.
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