A Nice Piece Of Real Estate |
 Dave Thurlow, Host |
Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow. You know one way to look at the earth's five climate zones is from space. Admittedly that's something we can't all do, so let's use our imaginations.
Pretend for a moment, if you need to, that you're from another planet and you're cruising the solar system looking for a nice piece of real estate far from home. So you grab a couple brochures from your interplanetary real estate agent and blast off. You swing by earth and of course the lovely blue atmosphere catches your eye. So, as you buzz in for a closer look you glance at a brochure entitled; "Earth - Five climate zones to choose from".
It's clear to see from you're little ship that the top and bottom of the earth contains polar zones -- too cold to live there. The middle of the planet, around the equator has the tropical and desert zones -- too hot.. And then there's a bunch of mountain ranges all over the world that have their own cold and variable mountain climate zones. Too rugged and risky. But there's this great temperate zone in between the tropics and the poles that looks pretty inviting. It's a big climate zone too. So you zoom down to get a good look, maybe chat with a few of the aliens, and you find that of all the earth's climate zones, from the hot equatorial jungles and deserts to the cold polar tundra, that the temperate zone fits your taste as well as that of seventy percent of earthlings.
So of the five basic climate zones - temperate, tropical, desert, polar and mountain, the temperate zone is a good choice, if you like the neighbors. Our show is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory (speaking of the mountain zone) with support provided by Subaru, and the National Science Foundation.