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Global Warming 
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Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 08:00:00 AM MDT
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The first half of 2010 has been the hottest globally in recorded history. A small change from last month: I briefly saw this headline at the top of a corporate media outlet: MSNBC. I should have taken a screen-shot because I saw it at 10:45P local time last night and it had been replaced by 11:00P when I looked again. So it would be untruthful to claim, for this month at least, that you couldn't have seen this story covered in a prominent way by the corporate media. I will lament that it took four straight months of record warmth before they did, however. I will also lament that it was replaced, nearly in the middle of night, by other headlines within minutes - short shrift for such an important topic.
In a similar fashion as last month, the NOAA analysis of global temperatures have marked the warmest month of June, the warmest 3-month April to June period and, along with NASA, the warmest 6-month January to June period in recorded human history. That makes for one heck of a headline, doesn't it?
June 2010
NASA's global analysis reported a +0.59°C (+1.062°F) surface temperature anomaly for June 2010 (over the 1951-1980 base period). June 2010 joined June 2005 as the third highest anomaly in the NASA dataset, behind the record anomaly from 1998 of 0.69°C (1.24°F) and the 0.62°C (1.116°F) anomaly from 2009, according to NASA's GISS dataset.
NOAA's global analysis reported a +0.68°C (+1.224°F) surface temperature anomaly for June 2010. According to the NOAA methodology, the next warmest June was observed in 2005: +0.66°C (+1.188°F).
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Sat Jul 03, 2010 at 08:00:00 AM MDT
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I meant to cross-post this earlier in the week when I finished writing it for my blog. Oh well - hopefully it makes for some interested weekend reading.
The June 2010 issue of Scientific American had two climate-related pieces in it that I thought were worth discussing.
Polar Meltdown
The first dealt with 12 potential events, their likelihood of occurring by 2050 and some of their effects. The front cover lists 'Polar Meltdown' last among the 12. The article has 'Polar Meltdown" as the 8th event, despite its likelihood (which the author places between '50-50' and 'almost certain'); I don't really understand how they decided to organize the events. I mention these details first because more of the general public reads Scientific American than journals or even climate-related blogs. Given the nature of the effects - vastly more negative than positive - I would personally prefer to see this catastrophic event listed first both on the front cover and in the article since every day we don't reduce our emissions means a polar meltdown becomes more and more likely. Interestingly, their online version has this event first, which is good news.
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Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 08:00:00 AM MDT
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The first five months of 2010 have been the warmest in recorded history. But have you seen that story covered by the corporate media? Nope - and you aren't likely to any time soon either ... at least until the records become so widespread and intense that there's no longer much we can do about them.
Both the NASA and NOAA analyses of global temperatures have marked the warmest month of May, the warmest 3-month March to May period and the warmest 5-month January to May period in recorded human history. Both datasets go back 131 years into the past. The warmest month, 3-month and 5-month periods out of 131 other years has been reached. Perhaps if the highest scoring Super Bowl in history had just occurred, some corporate entity might be interested in covering it.
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Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 11:07:29 AM MDT
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I didn't issue this earlier this month because I was waiting for the NSIDC monthly report, which was issued during a well-deserved vacation. I had originally written most of it to reflect conditions in early June, but apparently forgot to download the necessary graphics to complete the post. As such, I'm updating some of it for conditions through yesterday, which have only grown worse in the Arctic region. I'll issue a similar post in early July to get back on my regular schedule.
The state of polar sea ice in mid-June 2010 is fairly good compared to climatological conditions (1979-2000). The Antarctic sea ice extent is rebounding very nicely from its Southern Hemispheric fall minimum. It has passed the climatological median and is approaching the +2 standard deviation (there is much more ice than is normal for this time of year). The Arctic sea ice extent is a different story altogether, however. Conditions there are the worst on record for June, beating out years such as 2006 and 2007 for record low extent in recent days, as this time series shows.
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Wed May 19, 2010 at 11:21:57 AM MDT
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Just like last month, a record was set in April 2010. Just like last month, the corporate media was absolutely silent about it. Cons like to whine about how liberal the media is. Don't you think if the media had a liberal slant, they wouldn't hesitate to trumpet rising CO2 concentrations?
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations measured at Mauna Loa, Hawai'i were the highest for a single calendar month in our history: 392.39ppm.
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Wed May 05, 2010 at 16:41:46 PM MDT
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The state of polar sea ice in March 2010 is fairly good compared to climatological conditions (1979-2000), which strongly contrasts with the past few months when global conditions were below climatology. As it has done this time of year for a few years in a row, the global sea ice extent increased to the point where it is near climatological values, as this graph demonstrates. The anomalies observed in 2006 and 2007 become more obvious each time the globe's sea ice increases in Mar/Apr.
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Fri Apr 16, 2010 at 15:43:56 PM MDT
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Earlier this week, I posted a piece about the warmest March on record, according to NASA's satellite dataset.
Yesterday, NOAA issued their March 2010 Global Analysis. Their analysis is constructed in a different way than is NASA's, which is good - it serves as an independent check on the other. NOAA reached the same conclusion as NASA did: March 2010 was the warmest March on record.
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Wed Apr 07, 2010 at 17:51:47 PM MDT
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The state of polar sea ice in March 2010 is fairly good compared to climatological conditions (1979-2000), which strongly contrasts with the past few months when global conditions were below climatology. As it has done this time of year for a few years in a row, the global sea ice extent increased to the point where it is near climatological values, as this graph demonstrates. The anomalies observed in 2006 and 2007 become more obvious each time the globe's sea ice increases in March. The most recent data show that global sea ice covers ~15.25 million sq. km., compared to 15.75 million sq. km. normally.
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Thu Mar 25, 2010 at 12:04:25 PM MDT
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Word came yesterday of an island in the Bay of Bengal that has quietly slipped beneath rising seas. New Moore Island was a rocky island that was 2 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. This isn't the first island to succumb to rising sea levels, nor will it be the last, especially since we continue to belch greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere. Indeed, 10 additional islands in the same area continue to face submersion in the near future. This news isn't a surprise to any reputable scientist who has studied climate change, nor to any activist who has followed the state of the science.
Also unsurprisingly, Sen. James Inhofe's family was not photographed on New Moore Island constructing a building in further efforts to misinform the fringe anti-science crowd. I'm sure the lunatic Senator would cite his favorite conspiracy of global economic domination as the real topic to be discussed. It wasn't his island that disappeared, after all. You'll also note that the disappearing islands don't garner much corporate media attention. Since the stenographers look for controversy, there must be a lack of dimwits who are willing to go record disputing these events.
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