It used to be one of the commonplaces one learnt in geography: Near the ocean, climates are milder than in continental interior areas, being less extreme in day-night temperature changes and in winter cold and summer heat. Various aspects of ocean physics and chemistry, its absorption and diffusion of atmospheric heat, for instance, and deep-water currents and salinity are reasons for this moderating influence on nearby climate.

In the U.S. southeast, this beneficial characteristic of maritime climate could be lost if global climate warming is not halted soon. According to a study report by experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, described last week in The Tennessean, eight southeastern states, from North Carolina to Florida down the Atlantic coast and from Georgia to Kentucky eastward, including Tennessee, could get he worst of climate warming in the decades ahead.

More heat waves that “ravage crops, shrinking wildlife populations, and damage to trees” would be in the offing, as would longer periods of above-normal summer temperatures.  More...