No More Mr. Nice Sky

By Bill Maher

According to a study from Reading University in Nature Climate Change, climate change will make transatlantic flights a lot more turbulent, dangerous and unpleasant. Or maybe they’re thinking of Liam Neeson.  

 According to the BBC: “There is evidence to suggest (the jet stream) has been blowing more strongly, and under some scenarios could be prone to more of the instabilities associated with turbulence as the Earth's climate warms… the average strength of transatlantic turbulence could increase by between 10% and 40%, and the amount of airspace likely to contain significant turbulence by between 40% and 170%... In other words, a doubling of the amount of airspace affected.”

As one of the study’s authors pointed out, “'Moderate or greater turbulence' has a specific definition in aviation. It is turbulence that is strong enough to bounce the aircraft around with an acceleration of five meters per second squared, which is half of a g-force. For that, the seatbelt sign would certainly be on; it would be difficult towalk; drinks would get knocked over; you'd feel strain against your seatbelt.’”

 So it won’t kill you, but it will mess you up. Remember the last time the government shut down, and the first thing Congress turned back on was the air traffic controllers, because it affected congressmen? Could this finally make global warming real to David Vitter, when he’s on some rich guy’s Gulfstream and it knocks the hooker out of his lap?