2012 was world's tenth warmest year on record
A map of global temperatures show the majority of the planet experienced warmer than average heat in 2012. / NOAA
The U.S. experienced its warmest year on record in 2012, and the rest of the world was not far behind. Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released Tuesday show Planet Earth experienced its tenth warmest year since recordkeeping began in 1880.
NOAA's annual State of the Climate report shows that global temperatures were a full degree (1.03 degrees F) above the 20th century average in 2012. It was also the 36th straight year with temperatures above the average. The world has not seen a colder-than-average year since 1976.
It's official: 2012 hottest year in U.S. on record
All twelve years of the 21st century are in the top 14 warmest years ever recorded. Only one year from the 20th century -- 1998 -- was warmer than 2012.
The record year saw higher-than-average temperatures over much of North and South America, as well as the majority of Europe and Africa. Colder temperatures over central Asia and parts of the Southern Ocean brought the global average down slightly, as did a chilly December over the Northern Hemisphere.
2012 also featured unprecedented ice melt over the Arctic. There were also major droughts over several major agricultural regions, including the central U.S., eastern Russia and Ukraine. Northeastern Brazil experienced its worst drought in decades.
NOAA reports that average global temperatures have increased by 0.11 degrees F per decade since 1880. That trend accelerated to 0.26 degrees F per decade since 1970.
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Number ten out of 122 years is pretty impressive under any circumstance but this year pulled it off under La Nina conditions. Someone will have to check me but 2012 may be the warmest La Nina year ever.
All that CO2 that we're putting into the atmosphere? a lot of it is being absorbed by our oceans and seas. That's not an unmixed blessing. Phytoplankton provides us with most of the oxygen we breath (the rest comes from land based greens) and is the foundation of the oceanic food web. Too much CO2 in our water makes it more acidic and - to be frank - kills off those productive critters. Personally I'm a whole lot more worried about too much carbon in our oceans than in our atmosphere.
The map at the begining of the article shows what some of us have suspected for a long time....The bulk of the warming takes place at the higher latitudes of both hemispheres. A helluva lot of permafrost is melting away and turning permantly frozen wastelands into marshy bogs. Marshy bogs are fantastic reservoirs for methane and I can't even begin to tell you how much of that stuff - formerly locked up in ice - is now free to go anywhere it dang well pleases. Methane is much more efficient at retaining heat than CO2 and there are literally billions of tons of the stuff laying there waiting for ground temperatures to get only a little warmer than they are now. When all that methane cuts loose, and it will sooner or later, we will be in for some very abrupt and very unpleasant climate surprises.
Whether we are warming up or not and if we are, whether humans are the primary driver is important but as important - or more so - is the fact the CO2 we're pouring into our atmosphere represents the burning of a resource that is not inexhaustable. We need to wean ourselves from the fossil fuel nipple for reasons quite unconnected with climate.
If more people commented like you this site would be much better.
The problem is with the sudden acceleration in that global warming trend, just like the acceleration in polar ice melt and acceleration in sea level rise.
As a matter of fact, for the earth it was the 10th warmest year ever recorded and the average over the last 16 years (CLIMATE) hasn't changed up or down. While the earth and particularly North America has warmed in the past it seems that the temperature is stabilizing or going away while the co2 continues to climb.
NCDC Announces Warmest Year on Record for Contiguous U.S.
According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3 degrees F, which was 3.2 degrees F above the 20th century average and 1.0 degrees F above the previous record from 1998.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/ncdc-announces-warmest-year-record-contiguous-us
Climate scientists usually make the caveat that one weather event (like Sandy) doesn't mean that it was caused by climate change, but they always say this event was more likely to have occurred because of climate change. Even that statement is now changing. Looking back they are starting to say that certain events have been caused by climate change.
What political agenda? What is to be gained by telling the truth? I think of only the world that my children will inhabit! Big oil and their lackies have any agenda. It is to spread misinformation.
come back here to see their posts in reaction to the snowstorm's story. guaranteed to make a rational person instantly feel smarter!
RZARC2 replies: "Why bother? You need to be somewhat scientifically and mathematically literate to understand the science and math (primarily statistics) which the vast majority of 'non-believers' are not."
Good point, since trying to explain science to the anti-science deniers is just a waste of time any longer!
But...but...but...these deniers keep telling us the world is cooling! LOL!