Last year was the warmest on record in the continental United States, the federal government reported Tuesday, attributing the temperatures to the natural El Nino cycle as well as to long-term warming linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases.
In a statement released by the National Climatic Data Center, BOTH 1998 and 2006 were about 2.2 degrees above the 20th century mean average of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They also said in the statement that the last nine years have been:
"Among the 25 warmest years on record for the contiguous U.S., a streak which is unprecedented in the historical record. After a cold start to December, the persistence of spring-like temperatures in the eastern two-thirds of the country during the final two to three weeks of 2006 made this the fourth warmest December on record in the U.S., and helped bring the annual average to record high levels."
Five states GÇö Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire GÇö had their warmest December on record and no state was colder than average in December, the center added.
According to the MSNBC article online:
The center said that a moderate El Nino, a periodic Pacific Ocean pattern that affects weather worldwide, had limited Arctic blasts across the continental United States.
"A contributing factor ... also is the long-term warming trend, which has been linked to increases in greenhouse gases," it added.
But here's the kicker:
A key greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, which cars and industry emit by burning fossil fuel. The gases add to a natural greenhouse effect around Earth that traps in heat. Many scientists fear that humans are adding too much on top of pre-industrial levels of greenhouse gases.
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased by 30 percent since the start of the industrial revolution, and that has paralleled a warming trend.
Of course, as we are all well aware, the Bush administration simply refuses to require emissions restrictions, for fear it will hurt the economy Bush's friends in big business, most notably BIG OIL.
Worldwide, 2006 was the fourth warmest on record. On top of that, Britain's National Weather Service has predicted that 2007 will be the warmest on record GLOBALLY.
I'll close the same way I did in my post on Saturday: I seriously weep for our planet today.
Cross posted at both Daily Kos, and The Liberal Progressive!
UGH!!!! Ignorance is so sad.
Oil companies also know that when prices stay high for a certain period of time, the market will adjust, and their prices will be foreced down for the long term, as consumption as a whole drops due to technology investments. It will take a generation for that technology to be used up,as they learned in the 80's.
The auto companies are the ones to resist change when it comes to emissions more than oil companies.
Ultimately,I cannot entirely blame the big companies for this. Americans wanted to buy SUVs and inefficient cars because they fell for the hype that they couldn't handle an inch of snow without it, and they wanted big whales to drive. They wanted to drive everywhere, and thought public transportation was just a bunch of 'socialism'. Gas prices had been in a very steady decline becuase China had been kept at bay, and we had been driving very fuel efficient cars.
It isn't enough to blame the companies, who will adapt or die, as hard as they are fighting- and I AM angry at them for their greed since what profits they are making are going to about 1% of this nation- we must also blame ourselves as a society for being all about ME ME ME ME ME ME ME. And I am sorry, I see a lot of that even here on RK.
When we as a society start demanding more efficient items, no matter what Bush says, industry will be forced to bend. And frankly, as they outsource jobs, and leave with those jobs, the talent left behind can be just the people to capitalize on that very change.
I am not trying to argue with you, just trying to bring a perspective that occasionally gets lost.
Global warming is not a warm day in January. In fact, Saturday wasn't the high for Jan. 6 (1950 was), and that warm day was a direct result of El Nino currents in the Pacific. I'll give you that wetaher is a complex phenonemon, and global warming may very well have to with with warmer than average temps this winter, but people need to stop balking at a warm winter's day. Global warming doesn't make 1 particular day 30 degrees warmer than average.
Global Warming is far more insidious. It's when that warm day in Jan is a degree or 2 warmer than the one 5 years before that nobody remembers. It's the average temps of the earth rising very slowly, on the order of fractions of a degree per year. That's what causes glaciers to melt. That's what endangers polar bears.
That's why articles like this are so important. 2006 being the warmest year on record isn't even in itself disturbing (1950 was a warm year). What is bad is that recent years have been the warmest collectively, and the overall trend is towards slightly warmer.
I know it's knit-picky, but if we want the Republicans to help us do something about it we have to be serious scientists and not say silly things like "If you don't believe in global warming, just look at Saturday!" There are always warm days in the winter, you just don't remember them from year-to-year. That's why scientific evidence will always win over anecdotal.
STOP dancing around the facts, I, and everyone else, are getting tired of correcting you all.
"Anti global warming" indeed.
You're absolutely correct. And I wasn't knocking this post at all. I was actually responding to some of the comments and the article from earlier this week. I said "That's why this article is so important" (perhaps you missed that). I have been sick of all my friends this week, though, saying that Saturday was global warming.
Global warming is a scientific fact. Science above all! Policy with scientific backing! Let's not heatedly debate the issue. All we have to do is ask the 99% of scientists who agree, case closed. And really, there's not much debate in the scientific community about the human causes of global warming, either.
So, yeah. Global warming is real, it's bad, it must be stopped. No argument. Wasn't my point, though. We're all on the same side.
Still, if 70 degree weather in January is freaking people out enough to go rent "An Inconvenient Truth", then it's a good thing in my eyes!