In case you missed it, 2005 was the
warmest year on record.
That's right! No El Nino to blame, no abnormal meteorological activity, nothing. Just the same old sad song of global warming.
"It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern meteorological records," said Drew Shindell of the NASA institute in New York City. "Using indirect measurements that go back farther, I think it's even fair to say that it's the warmest in the last several thousand years."
Some researchers had expected 1998 would be the hottest year on record, notably because a strong El Nino -- a warm-water pattern in the eastern Pacific -- boosted global temperatures. But Shindell said last year was slightly warmer than 1998, even without any extraordinary weather pattern. Temperatures in the Arctic were unusually warm in 2005, NASA said.
It doesn't get better, folks.
Just take a look at the weather anomaly for last year...
You convinced we're a little too warm yet?
How about finding out that global sea levels could rise by a foot in the next century?
Ok, ok... One foot ain't that scary, unless you live in the islands of the South Pacific, but what about 16 feet?
Meanwhile, the debate has shifted internationally (can't say much for our "prestigious" scientific community at home these days on this matter) from whether global warming is happening to whether we may have reached the tipping point.
What's the significance of that? See, once the permafrost starts melting (that's permanently frozen land in the high lattitudes), it'll release more carbon dioxide into the air. And as ice, which reflects most of the sunlight that hits it back into space, melts at the caps, the water that takes its place mostly absorbs the sun't light, causing even more warming (a positively-reinforcing cycle). So, you see, a "tipping point" isn't just the "point of no return." It's literally the point at which we have triggered Earth's own mechanisms that it will continue to warm itself even as we may try to cool it down.
Makes you wonder why the Bush Administration is trying to silence one of its experts on the matter, yes? Shouldn't global warming be one of our forefront concerns at this precise moment?
I just say all this because, lost amid the flurry of activity over Sam "Adams" Alito (the beer, not the patriot), the wiretapping scandal, and "Abramamoff" (as Bush calls him) is a very real threat to our livelihoods. It ain't a Democratic or Republican issue, folks, it's an issue of survival.
Think about it - just how well would we truly survive of we "tipped" into a new era of world climate and suddenly had to negotiate with Russia, China and Canada for precious farmland while our own was destroyed by drought and desertification? What would happen if the taps in the West dried up because the rain stopped falling and the snow no longer fell as snow in the mountains (thus disrupting a delicate water-delivery system)? How would the Midwest cope with the Great Lakes drying up as their main source of spring water (i.e. winter snows) dried up? How would the Gulf Coast and East Coast be transformed as more explosive hurricanes flared up and crashed ashore while the economies of the remainder of the country weakened?
As much as there's all this talk on Washington these days of doing well by yourself and deserving every penny that gets attributed to your name, I fear that we are losing sight of how truly vulnerable we are, not only as individuals, but as a society.
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