Boiling the Ocean
The ocean temperature in the Florida Keys hit hot-tub levels on consecutive days last week, reaching 101.3 F (38.5 C), a new record. In early July, another new record was set for the highest average daily temperatures recorded on Earth. Indeed, the one-two punch of global warming and El Niño has produced a scorching summer for the ages. And as we try to keep cool here on land, it’s easy to forget how the heat equally wreaks havoc on the seas, and that marine life, like the rest of us, feels the pain.
Why Is It Getting Hotter?
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Ocean Acidification: Carbon Dioxide’s Affect on the Seas
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The Rapid Pace of Coral Bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef
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Potter’s Birthday Device
Today is the 43rd birthday of the character Harry Potter, which would technically make him a member of Gen X, though it’s difficult to imagine the boy wizard in middle age. Regardless of how many candles he blows out, today’s date served as an important plot point in the celebrated series.
Inciting incident
The series began with, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which itself began on the occasion of Potter’s 11th birthday. It was then that he learned of his magical lineage and received an invitation to Hogwarts.
Tone setter
It wasn’t just that first novel. Every book and movie begins around Potter’s birthday, which is also the birthday of author J.K. Rowling, who turns 58 years old today. While his birthday wasn’t central to every work, it did serve as a tone-setter, a natural plot device for a series that follows a character grappling with adolescence.
Rite of passage
When Potter turned 17 at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, he became an adult, at least according to rules of the wizarding world. It meant that he was no longer under his mother’s posthumous protective spell, which made him vulnerable to an attack from Lord Voldemort.
© 2001 Warner Bros.
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