The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its annual “2010 State of the Climate” report, describing trends in more than 40 climate variables. NOAA said the report provides a “consistent and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the oceans” that the world continues to warm.
Here is a small selection from the NOAA report:
Surface temperature:
- Three major independent datasets show 2010 as one of the two warmest years since official record-keeping began in the late 19th century.
- The Arctic continued to warm at about twice the rate of low latitudes
Glaciers
- The world’s mountain glaciers lost mass for the 20th consecutive year.
- Greenland glaciers lost more mass in 2010 than any other year on record.
Sea ice
- Arctic sea ice shrank to its third smallest area on record.
Sea surface temperature
- The average sea surface temperature for 2010 of all the oceans around the world was the third warmest on record.
Ocean heat content
- Ocean heat content in 2010 was similar to 2009 and was among the highest values in the record.
Sea Level
- Sea level continued to rise across the world’s oceans on average.
There is no scientific debate on global warming.
In relation to the science, every qualified scientific body in the world, from the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Chinese Academy of Science, accepts unequivocally that global warming is a reality and agrees that warming is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
‘There is no significant debate in the science – the naysaying to the conclusions in the science is external to the scientific process and fetures those that make their case by subverting the science. Everyone in a free society is entitled to their own opinion, just not their own facts. Conjecture, hearsay and misquoting is not an academic freedom but resides in the domain of free speech,’ says Prof Wills.
‘To act on global warming and avoid dangerous climate change, we must fundamentally change the way we think about energy and how we do business. And we must act.’
The Sustainable Energy Association is an industry chamber supporting market-based solutions to grow sustainable energy as a means of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and supports cost reflective pricing in energy that includes a price on carbon.
‘Climate change is real, the impacts are already proving dire and will only get worse, humans are causing it, and we need to stop,’ says Prof Wills.
Read More: http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/consistent-and-unmistakable-need-action-global-warming/5/93696