Well while the Republican majority continue to ignore the constant stream of news reports from scientists that insist the planet is warming at an alarming rate and that the polar ice caps are actually melting
faster than they ever thought, we have a
report today from NOAA that states that the period from January to August of 2006 is the warmest since we have been keeping records.
The persistence of the anomalous warmth in 2006 made this January-August period the warmest on record, eclipsing the previous record of 1934. Six individual months were much warmer than average (within their top 10 warmest on record), with only February and March near average.
You can see in the chart provided by NOAA that 5 states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Okalahoma, Texas, and Missouri have had the warmest 8 month period ever! And if you will note the number of states that have near normal temperature. That's right, ZERO.
Every single state in the contiguous United States had above average temperatures between January and August of this year! That is a remarkable stat.
In addition the June-August temperature for the US was 2.4 degrees above average, making it the second warmest summer on record. Second by only .2 degrees in which was in 1936.
Drought conditions worsened in some parts of the country. Rainfall in August was below normal from Montana to southern California and the Pacific Northwest. This contributed to a continuing and already-active wildfire season. Through early September, the number of acres burned in the U.S. is nearing the record of almost 8.7 million acres burned during all of 2005, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Seems that this NOAA report is already out of date because we have now eclipsed the record for acres burned. Wildfires across the country have scorched more land in 2006 than in any year since at least 1960. As of Wednesday, blazes had torched 8.69 million acres, or 13,584 square miles, just above last year's total of 13,573 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
But at least this is the worst fire season ever since 1960. That was only 46 years ago, but wait...
Reliable records were not kept before 1960, officials said.
When we have a sitting president that selectively choose what "science" he choose to believe and a sitting Vice President that authors an energy policy that rewards the very corporations and policies that are directly responsible for these outrageous stats we are in trouble.
So much for protecting our National Security!