Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Southwest Wind

In Rhode Island’s Providence Journal, Fred Thurber explores the importance of the southwest wind to human culture, from noting that some Native Americans intentionally pointed their graves southwest, to describing the role the southwest wind played in the establishing the America’s Cup in Newport, Rhode Island. “Just as Man is an evolutionary afterthought, the breathable air on our planet was an afterthought when the planet was constructed, a minor embellishment by its builders. Unless you are a Sherpa or Peruvian Indian, Earth’s air is only habitable up to about 19,000 feet. If the Earth were the size of an apple, the thickness of its breathable air would be thinner than the apple’s skin.”