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Last Decade Warmest Ever: NASA
WASHINGTON - The past decade was the warmest ever on Earth, a new analysis of global surface temperatures released by NASA showed Thursday.
A bushfire burns out of control in the Kiewa Valley in Victoria state, Australia. The past decade was the warmest ever on Earth, a new analysis of global surface temperatures released by NASA showed Thursday. (AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood) The US space agency also found that 2009 was the second-warmest year on record since modern temperature measurements began in 1880. Last year was only a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest yet, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with the other hottest years, which have all occurred since 1998.
According to James Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, global temperatures change due to variations in ocean heating and cooling.
"When we average temperature over five or 10 years to minimize that variability, we find global warming is continuing unabated," Hansen said in a statement.
A strong La Nina effect that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean made 2008 the coolest year of the decade, according to the New York-based institute.
In analyzing the data, NASA scientists found a clear warming trend, although a leveling off took place in the 1940s and 1970s.
The records showed that temperatures trended upward by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 Celsius) per decade over the past 30 years. Average global temperatures have increased a total of about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 Celsius) since 1880.
"That's the important number to keep in mind," said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with the institute.
"The difference between the second and sixth warmest years is trivial because the known uncertainty in the temperature measurement is larger than some of the differences between the warmest years."
Last year's near-record temperatures took place despite an unseasonably cool December in much of North America and a warmer-than-normal Arctic, with frigid air from the Arctic rushing into the region while warmer mid-latitude air shifted northward, the institute said.
The analysis was based on weather data from over a thousand meteorological stations worldwide, satellite observations of sea surface temperatures and Antarctic research station measurements.
But the newly released figures were unlikely to quell a heated climate debate.
The so-called "climategate" controversy that exploded last fall on the eve of UN-sponsored climate talks unleashed a furor over whether the planet was heating and, if so, at what pace.
Hundreds of emails intercepted from scientists at Britain's University of East Anglia, a top center for climate research, have been seized upon by skeptics as evidence that experts twisted data in order to dramatize global warming.
World powers agreed at the Copenhagen climate summit last month to seek to prevent average global temperatures from rising beyond 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (two Celsius) above pre-industrial levels in order to halt the most devastating effects of global warming.
"There's a contradiction between the results shown here and popular perceptions about climate trends," Hansen said. "In the last decade, global warming has not stopped."
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51 Comments so far
Show AllThe classic frog in a pan of water, brought to a slow boil.
Except this "brilliant" frog proposes voluntary limits on how fast we bring the water to a boil.
Yes! - I was about to make that frog point. Your addition is "brilliant".
"Never speak of the ocean to a frog in a well - it'll think you're crazy". Speaking of oceans warming to those frogs is, well, overtaxing their brains.
The frogs will keep voting for their well to be heated some more, thinking it'll do them "well". - All until the heat-turmoiled ocean washes away the living well, a.k.a. "homeland". Then the few survivors will blame the "government", apparently.
We're in a bad fix, folks.
With our communication systems controlled, tapped, and biased, plus the "politeness tyranny" limiting expression of thought, we're pretty gagged and bound from reacting sufficiently. "The right of assembly" in "protest zones" is like someone screaming in a padded cell, and the credibility is about as high...
To quote an old joke: "Eat shit - 7 billion flies (people, minus a 10.000 person strong elite) can't be wrong..."
I trust some people to wake up in time not to "boil", but I don't trust US to remain with enough skills to continue our fragile delivery systems for necessary goods. We're already living in an ongoing catastrophy, in overall terms.
I know it's not "nice" of me to come at you through your clean screen like this, but look at the facts, pls. We're living in a semi global "Haiti". Literally. Half the global 7 bn population lives on less than US$ 2 a day.
All I want to do is scream the truth from mountain tops. - And hoping the echoes will answer me differently... That's how contradictory I feel. You know?
How can you scream from the mountain tops when they are being blown up and flattened to extract fossil fuels?
Yup. Problem. - I guess I'll have to do the screaming while there's still mountain tops left, then. ;-) Luckily, there's still a good few around, literal as well as metaphorical ones. Care to join?
Well, so far, they have not found coal in the Rockies, so I would be happy to scream from their heights. They haven't much snow on them this year either, (comparatively)...and certainly not those close to Vancouver(BC).
It would appear that the snowboarding event has been recast as a strawboarding event as they are going to build up the base with straw and wood with a veneer of snow helicoptered in. Global warming anyone?
Nah, that's just the curse of the winter olympics...
Haven't they always had to truck in snow?
There is coal in the Rockies, we're saving them until the yanks run out. Then we'll cut 'em up and burn them. (singing) we're having a heat wave, gonna have a tropical heat wave (voice cracks, eggs thrown)
Well, the SCOTUS decision will only accelerate the evil that permeates Congress.
Rest assured, it's gonna be drill, baby, drill.
Environmental protections, whatever was left, has just been entirely neutered. The planet is toast.
What do these scientists know? It was so hot in Biblical times that they had burning bushes and pillars of fire. It's getting colder, I say!
Yes, I was cold this winter and that is irrefutable evidence that there is no warming. My Brother-in-law who knows how to read and write checked his thermometer every day last month and it is NOT hotter than ever. If you look at the sun for a while (use sun glasses) you can see the sun spot. The sun spot is what is causing global warming. The pastor in my church say's there is no warming and who would argue with someone with a direct connection to god! It is not humans who caused the warming but we should slow down on fosil fuel use in order for the oil to replenish itself naturally. We all know that it is the Muslim's who started global warmings and that is why we must continue the occupation of the middle east. Isn't it all obvious?
NASA data proves nothing of the sort as the basis of their conclusions is alleged to have been fraudulently arrived at by the method of dropping literally thousands of temperature readings from cooler locations (reduction from 6,000 sites to 1,500) and then further manipulating the data to make resulting temperatures appear even warmer!
This work was conducted by Certified Consulting Meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo and computer expert E. Michael Smith and revealed on KUSI TV last week:-
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/81559212.html
A good summary of the findings can be read at ‘The American Thinker’:-
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/climategate_cru_was_but_the_ti.html
…and a preliminary report read/downloaded from:
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/NOAAroleinclimategate.pdf
Add these revelations to those already in the public domain via the leaked/hacked emails/data from UK’s premier climate institute last November and the final nails really should now be hammered into the coffin of so called ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’!
However, given that the scam is a major part of a long term agenda conceived of in the 70’s by premier UN think-tank ‘The Club of Rome’ (of which Al Gore and Maurice Strong have been key members) and admitted by them in their 1990’s book ‘The First Global Revolution’ and has since come to be the basis of the environmental ponzi scheme otherwise known as ‘Cap and Trade’ of which Gore and Strong are to financially benefit massively and the major banks and investment houses have invested millions, it is going to take a bit more yet to kill off yet the evil hoax perpetrated against mankind!
Here’s the give-away quote from the Club of Rome’s book (available as free legal download from: http://www.archive.org/details/TheFirstGlobalRevolution )
"The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself."
Good post. well done!
Yeah, that NASA...first they fake the moon landings, and now this.
LOL :-D
Tnx, Mujer. - Always trust a good woman to "earth" us...
It's not just Al Gore, but Mr. Evil himself has telepathically infiltrated the minds of tens of thousands of climate scientists and every major scientific organization in the world to compel them to distribute phony data in a nefarious attempt to scare people into embracing socialism and buying more air conditioners. Those diabolical scientists just can't give up their evil ways.
Electric Eel
"The best way out is always through."
--Robert Frost
Do you really believe there are tens of thhousands of climate scientists in the world? If not, why the exaggeration? Pumping yourself up?
Wow, a CERTIFIED meteorologist! In your face Mr. Hansen
Well, I suppose its good that someone is looking out to make sure NOAA and GISS are above-board with their data. Regarding the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) that seems to be the bulk of the criticism, its easy to show that UHI is secondary in the global sense: earth-plots of population show no correlation at all with earth-plots of warming since 1950. In fact, they show almost a negative correlation, since Siberia and the Arctic, which have shown twice or even three times the warming since 1950 of other areas, are also the most rural places on earth. Not to criticize, necessarily, but NOAA may be dropping thermometer stations because of more reliance on satellite data.
Except the data from two other monitoring organisms, one in the UK and one in the U.S. show 10 years og global cooling and their data agree. This is from satellite, not weather stations. NASA's data no longer agrees with itself. What they recorded in the past they now show differently, and they are alone in showing increasing warming in the last 10 years.
Was this a post with sophisticated sarcasm that's beyond my feeble intellect? Or is this an example of why the human race deserves extinction by it's own actions?
I am with you guy but you'll find very little support. This is a religion to some and they don't care about facts, they already know the truth.
Hate to tell you this but the AAAS and AP found no wrong doing in the hacked E-mails. We still don't know about the hackers except that they cherry picked and misrepresented the hacks.
Warmer? Colder? Or just more unstable?
I predict there'll be a retraction soon, like the ROFL melting Himalayan Glaciers scam! Science has gotten to be so thoroughly politicized, I suspect most of these "warming" reports are Big Brother keep-everyone-scared propaganda.
What of the studies that identify the U.S. military and global CAFO agribusiness as the two biggest "greenhouse gas" producers? In U.S. that's the #1 and #2 overbloated porkbarrel federal agencies - DoD & USDA. And what do you see them doing about it? Diddly squat. Any legislation aimed at altering energy usage in those realms? Naaaah...
I'm with you on that!
If we incorporate Hansen's 'fee and dividend' scheme everyone will pay more for fossil fuels, including the military, but only citizens will get a dividend to pay back for the higher fuel prices. 'Fee and dividend' is aimed at changing energy-use priorities, not raising taxes. People will be encouraged to reduce fossil use gradually, while still getting a monthly dividend from the fuel-fee.
Of course, if its all politicized science, then I guess there's no need. But one of the most accurate predictions on Global Warming was right on its three major predictions:
1. that CO2 levels would go up 30% in the 20th century (actual: 37%)
2. that global temperatures would rise 1 C in the 20th century (actual: 0.7 C)
3. that doubling CO2 would eventually cause temps to increase 3.5C (current estimate: 2C to 4.5C).
These predictions were made in 1957 by Gilbert Plass. They were not politicized and show, once more, how 'no-brainer' global warming really is.
Are you trying to confuse 'ditto heads' with facts.... they don't need no stinkin' facts!....
Hey, why would you want to ruin a perfectly good conspiracy theory by paying attention to the facts?
Fee and dividend would just be your money going in circles.
30% of .3 is not a lot. .7 C is not a lot either. Your third statement is conjectural and non-sensical
Wow, I'm glad to learn its all a hoax.
I only hope someone lets the beetles that are ravaging our forests know, as well as the snow geese that now winter here in such numbers that they feed on and destroy our school grounds leaving only their droppings.
Those droppings will turn into oil in no time. Don't worry about it.
I'm so honored to be among the last people standing watching my species commit suicide. In the optimism of the 1960'ies, who'd've thunk that'd count as perk?
It's a great privilege, of course, but I think I could learn to live without it. I'd trade for dignified survival of my species any second.
Well, we can hope that we do not take out too many other species with ourselves. It looks however, that we may sterilize the environment as we go, not by intent, but through ignorance. I'd always maintained that the Earth would survive, even after mankind had passed, but with our affinity for poisons I'm not as convinced as I once was.
Life will adapt. It always does.
I feel the same way. I've been saying for years what a privilege it is to be able to live in humanities "golden age". All I ask and hope for is that I live long, yet die before the shit really hits the fan.
I believe that if you're under 60 you'll likely get a seat at the 'end of the world' show, whether you want it or not.
Unless, of course, we can first make the ecological fans hit the shit.
The sixth extinction marks the end of the Anthropocene. Just another age on Earth; just another set of species passing on, making way for the next creative wave of evolution. No one knows how this will play out. Species don't get to select the nature of their demise. What stays and what goes is out of our hands now, though I tend to think we're going to strip this planet down pretty far. Maybe some humans will be around in 50 or 100 or 1,000 years, maybe not. Nevertheless, I think highly of this planet, and tend to think life will go on. That's very good, and quite good enough for me.
I guess this extinction means that I am out of a job - no one will be interested in anthropology anymore, especially the surviving non human species.
The species is not committing suicide. Humans are not going to disappear any time soon. This is melodramatic. There are more important things to be concerned about if you want to talk sixties. Take for instance war and exploitation.
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/hottest-year
This old Indian wasn't worried about it yesterday, not worried about today, & won't be worried about it tomorrow.
The days of the Tribes are long gone.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive
What??? Global warming???? But my toes are soooo cold!!!!!
That's surely 'prima facie' proof of global cooling. Always trust your own senses. Right.
As Groucho Marx (standing in for James Hansen) said, "Who are going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
Big difference, though. Groucho was scamming. Hansen, sadly, is not.
Groucho: "Why, a child of FIVE could do this!
er.. fetch me a child of five..."
It amazes me that there are so many people that think that 150 years of billions of people pumping CO2 into the atmosphere won't have an effect on it, when millions of people using hairspray for a few decades almost destroyed the Ozone layer. Idiots...
The difference ,sir, is that carbon dioxide is produced by all animals, not just humans, and by the decomposition of all plants and animals whereas the chemicals in hairspray are man-made and react with oozone. Your insult makes you look like a fool.
Is it, or is it not?
The unreal can never be. The real can never not be.----B. Gita
Do what you think you have to do.
You are all so worried about something that is as yet unproven and likely wrong when you are being robbed of your future, your freedom, and that of your children. You are slowly, yes like the frog, being put into a box where you will obediently do whatever you are told because you are so afraid. You are walking into a fascist totalitarian dictatorship people. GET SERIOUS.