NOAA: last decade was warmest, global warming "undeniable"
As July continues to sizzle in much of the United States, a new U.S. report says the 2000-2009 decade was the Earth's warmest on record and "global warming is undeniable."
About 300 scientists from 48 countries contributed to the 2009 State of the Climate report released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
USA TODAY colleague Doyle Rice, who notes that global weather records go back to the 1880s, describes their report's findings:
Each of the last three decades has been much warmer than the decade before, it reports. At the time, the 1980 was the hottest decade on record. In the 1990s, every year was warmer than the average of the previous decade. And the 2000s were warmer still.
Specifically, the decade of the 2000s had a surface global temperature that was 0.96°F above the long-term (20th century) average. This shattered the 1990s value of 0.65°F above average, according to Thomas C. Patterson, chief scientist at the National Climatic Data Center...
The report focused on 10 indicators of a warming world, seven which are increasing and three declining. Rising over the decades are average air temperature, the ratio of water vapor to air, ocean heat content, sea-surface temperature, sea level, air temperature over the ocean and air temperature over land.
Indicators that are declining are snow cover, glaciers and sea ice.
"The temperature increase of one degree Fahrenheit over the past 50 years may seem small, but it has already altered our planet," said Deke Arndt, co-editor of the report and chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of the data center.
"Glaciers and sea ice are melting, heavy rainfall is intensifying and heat waves are more common," he says.
Last month was the warmest June on record and this year has had the warmest average temperature for January-June since record keeping began, NOAA reported last week.
Siklosy et al. (2009) conducted a complex trace element and stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of a stalagmite recovered from a cave (Kiskohat Shaft) located in northeast Hungary at the southern rim of the Bukk Highland (48°4.086'N, 20°29.422'E), with dating provided by twelve 230Th-234U determinations made along the growth direction of the stalagmite. Results indicated that the highest oxygen isotope values occurred around AD 1000-1150, which interval they identified as the Medieval Warm Period, while the coldest years, which they associated with the Little Ice Age, prevailed from about AD 1550 to 1700. Another striking aspect of their results was the 50-year period from approximately AD 1450-1500, which was almost as warm as the Medieval Warm Period. This warm interval has also been observed in a number of other paleoclimate studies, and as ever more evidences of the Little Medieval Warm Period are discovered, it is beginning to look like the Medieval Warm Period proper and the earlier Roman Warm Period were not the only eras to exhibit surface air temperatures that may have equaled or eclipsed those of the late 20th century. And it is important to note that all of those earlier warm eras achieved their enhanced thermal status without any help from elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which were fully 100 ppm less than they are today at those earlier times. Hence, there is ample reason to believe that whatever caused the warmth of those prior eras could well be maintaining the warmth of the present era, which -- if true -- would relieve CO2 of that undeserved credit.
Reference Siklosy, Z., Demeny, A., Szenthe, I., Leel-Ossy, S., Pilet, S., Lin, Y. and Shen, C.-C. 2009. Reconstruction of climate variation for the last millennium in the Bukk Mountains, northeast Hungary, from a stalagmite record. Quarterly Journal of the Hungarian Meteorological Service 113: 245-263. NIPCC
-------------- Actually my wife is especially happy when my google check arrives each month. Thanks to douchbags like you, I get paid just for getting you worked up. -Liberal
-------------- After we screw up health care reform, let's take on the initiative of unscrewing the education system (gov't education) Tacitus: (c. 56 AD-c. 117) "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."
