Climate news

Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods, according to the US Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was 16.2°C, and for the year-to-date it was 14.2°C.  Both of these are 0.68°C above the 20th century average.

Other climate-related highlights for June 2010 include:

• Arctic sea ice extent in June 2010 was the lowest June extent since records began in 1979 and was the 19th consecutive June with below-average Arctic sea ice extent.
• Antarctic sea ice extent in June was the largest June extent on record.
• Australia had its fourth-driest June on record.
• The first six months of 2010 were the driest since 1929 for the United Kingdom.

More details from NOAA

Charts of surface temperature anomolies around the globe, published by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, show that temperatures during the first quarter of  2010 were the highest on record (out of 131 years). 

Although temperatures in the UK, northern Europe and northern China were generally 1-2 degrees C below average, this was more than offset by warmer temperatures across most of Africa, South America, south Asia and Canada. Much of northern Canada was more than 4 degrees warmer than average.

Click here to view the graphs   

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO have combined to produce a snapshot of Australia's climate.  Review of data for the last 100 years confirms:

• Mean temperature increased by 0.7 degrees C since 1960
• The number of days with record hot temperatures has increased each decade for the last 50 years
• There have been fewer record cold days each decade
• Decreasing annual rainfall in the southeast and southwest, but increased rainfall in the northwest
• Sea level rise of 1.5 to 3mm in the south and east, and of 7 to 10mm in the north and west 

The report's main conclusions include:

1. Climate change is real
2. Australia will be hotter in the coming decades (2.2 to 5 degrees C by 2070)
3. Much of the country will be drier, but with an increase in intense rainfall events
4. There is above 90% certainty that increases in greenhouse gas emissions have caused most of the global warming in the last 50 years

Download the report here

NASA has just launched a great new climate change website for kids. It contains clear explanations, useful graphics and a variety of games. The 'climate time machine' allows one to track projected changes in temperature, carbon emissions, sea level and sea ice over time.  There is also a fascinating feature where you can explore the planet in 3D using NASA satellite images.

Find the website here

The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a climate science report that aims to supplement the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).  Major findings include:

• CO₂ emisisons from fossil fuels up by 40% from 1990 to 2008
• Global temperature is warming by 0.19 degrees C per decade
• Ice melt is accelerating
• Sea level rise is 3.4 mm/yr and accelerating

The report concludes that to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees C will require global CO₂ emissions to peak before 2020.

Download full report

According to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme, the pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

There is increasing concern over a wide range of issues including acidification of the oceans, sea level rise and changes in the hydrological cycle.  Tipping points may now be reached in a matter of years or a few decades including dramatic changes to the Indian sub-continent's monsoon, the Sahara and West Africa monsoons, and climate systems affecting critical ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest, and the planet is now committed to some damaging and irreversible impacts as a result of the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

In a foreword to the document, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, "The time for hesitation is over. We need the world to realize, once and for all, that the time to act is now and we must work together to address this monumental challenge. This is the moral challenge of our generation."

Download the UNEP report

NASA's 'Eyes on the Earth' web page summarises the latest key global climate change indicators.  These include:

• Sea level rise: 3.4 mm per year
• Arctic sea ice: losing 11.7% per decade
• Atmospheric CO₂ - now approximately 388 parts per million
• Global average temperature: 2008 was the 10th warmest year on record

See NASA's graphs

Tuvalu is a tiny island state in the Pacific.  It is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change because most of the land there is within 1 metre of sea level. Electricity is currently generated mainly using diesel-powered generators but the government plans to change to 100% wind and solar power by 2020.

Other nations planning to become carbon-neutral include Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand and Norway.

See article from BBC

Forest ecologists in California's Yosemite National Park have analysed data from the last 60 years and concluded that the oldest and largest trees are disappearing. Reduced water availability due to climate change appears to be a major cause of the loss.  The decline in large-diameter trees could accelerate as climate in California becomes warmer by mid-century, and the situation may be worse elsewhere because Yosemite is one of the most protected forests within the US.

More detail from the BBC

The Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change was held from 20-24 April 2009, in Anchorage, Alaska.   Representatives expressed their solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change. Indigenous Peoples are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on their cultures, human and environmental health, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, and their very survival as Indigenous Peoples. Summit representatives agreed a Declaration reaffirming the unbreakable and sacred connection between land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and human communities.

The Declaration makes 14 calls for action, including for binding emissions reduction targets, a just transition to decentralised renewable energy economies, reduced fossil fuel use and provision of risk insurance to allow Indigenous Peoples to recover from extreme weather events.

Read the Declaration