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February 3, 2006
Global surface temperatures in 2005
This is an image from NASA's Earth Observatory news site. The agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) considers 2005 to be tied for the warmest year ever recorded. The other year, 1998, was the year in which the strongest El Niño in a century occurred; 2005 reached the same high temperatures without an El Niño effect.
Here's what the GISS director has to say about 2005:
In early 2006, James Hansen, director of NASA GISS, pointed out that five of the warmest years over the last century were in the previous eight years: 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. Moreover, the GISS team states, “It is no longer correct to say that ‘most global warming occurred before 1940,’� an argument sometimes made by those who are skeptical of the link between human-produced greenhouse gases and global warming. Instead, the GISS team says, global warming over the last century up until 1975 was slow, with large fluctuations. Since 1975, there has been a “rapid warming of almost 0.2°C per decade.�
That's the same James Hansen who says he's being censored and hindered in his efforts to talk about global warming to the public. We can't screw around with this. This is a problem that transcends not only borders but time. And not just time in the sense of a few presidential administrations, but in the sense of generations.
Posted by rigd0003 at February 3, 2006 10:27 AM | Environment | Science and Policy
Comments
THANK you for posting! I would like to note that there is lots of nice/informative stuff at the NY Times link you included; you can watch a whole expose on the melting arctic. Which honestly, I had a very very hard time watching.
It is so clear that our government (and not just the current one, mind you, but those of the past as well) has gone to GREAT lengths to cover this up. All for the benefit of profit, profit, profit.
Posted by: naomi at February 3, 2006 2:20 PM