Some things to consider that are not mentioned in this article: 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.
Thank you for actually adding useful information to the article rather than yelling about republicans/democrats or turning it into something that has nothing to do with the topic.
If more people commented like you this site would be much better.
"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."
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.
i live where its cold, i'm old (47) and i don't have any kids so i love global warming, and at the same time i get to see the republicans proven WRONG yet again, i love it!!, but the republicans i know still think there were WMD's in iraq, also all my republican friends sold out of the stock mkt when obama came into office (dow was at 8k) i bought the market (i think the dow is over 13k now), i loved bringing that up at the Christmas parties last december (i'm a popular guy), of course most of the republicans i know are socialists anyways, i can't think of one of them that didn't have (or still has) a student loan, although they do not see that as a government program, the blind leading the blind
The NCDC has backed off the warmest year story as has everyone else except the news media. It seems they hadn't included some data and other data they had wrong. Once corrected, it seems the 2012 was only the 4th warmest year of the recorded years. And only being about 2% of the surface area of the earth it wasn't that important. 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.
NO, 2012 was indeed the warmest year in the contiguous U.S. on record
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.
The ice cores that they take in the Antarctic give all kinds of data. Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. That trend line matches the global temperature increases. The acceleration is quite large in the last decade.
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.
no worries...there's bound to be a 2 inch snowfall in nyc yet this winter and to many a yahoo that'll be enough to refute a decade-long global warming trend.
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!
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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!