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Subscribe to RSSNational Geographic photographer James Balog is featured in the Sundance award-winning documentary "Chasing Ice," which looks at the impact global warming is having on the Arctic. Balog has set up cameras in the Arctic to shoot every hour of daylight to show the changes to the region. Balog joins Morning Joe with director Jeff Orlowski.
DOHA, Qatar -- Despite cooling from La Nina early in the year, 2012 is on track to become one of the top 10 warmest years on record, with the U.S. experiencing extreme warmth and Arctic Sea ice shrinking to its lowest extent, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday.
In a statement released at international climate talks in Qatar, the World Meteorological Organization said the "alarming rate" of the Arctic melt highlights the far-reaching changes caused by global warming.
"Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in Doha, Qatar, to discuss ways of slowing climate change, including by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming the planet, melting ice caps, raising sea levels, and changing rainfall patterns with impacts on floods and droughts.
Discord between rich and poor countries on who should do what has kept the two-decade-old U.N. talks from delivering on that goal, and global emissions are still going up.
The WMO said global temperatures rose after initial cooling caused by the La Nina weather oscillation, with major heat waves in the U.S. and Europe. Average temperatures in January-October were the highest in the continental U.S., and the ninth highest worldwide, since records began in 1850.
Cyclone activity was normal globally, but above average in the Atlantic, where 10 storms reached hurricane strength, including Sandy, which wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast.
Sandy wasn't the strongest cyclone, though. That was Typhoon Sanba, which struck the Philippines, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, "dumping torrential rain and triggering floods and landslides that affected thousands of people and caused millions in U.S. dollars in damage," the WMO said.
Related: Permafrost melt needs to be factored into talks, experts say
Droughts impacted the U.S., Russia, parts of China and northern Brazil. Nigeria saw exceptional floods, while southern China saw its heaviest rainfall in three decades.
But of all the weather events in 2012, the most ominous to climate scientists was the loss of ice cover on the North Pole. In September, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado said Arctic Sea ice measured 1.32 million square miles — which is 18 percent less than the previous record low, set in 2007. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking.
The scientists said their computer models predict the Arctic could become essentially free of ice in the summer by 2050, but added that current trends show ice melting faster than the computers are predicting.
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I'm sure Grover Norquist and his worshippers are still sitting back saying Global Warming is a hoax. Sign this contract that states specifically that Global Warming is a hoax or I'll get you ousted from the Republican Party
Don't believe everything the UN, Al Gore, Democrats, and the liberal media is saying about Global Warming. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud is misleading people here (again) by saying CO2 is causing Global Warming. It is impossible that CO2 is causing this when it is only .03% of the atmosphere. .03% is almost ZERO!!!! This does not add up mathematically that CO2 is causing global warming...therefore it is a big bunch of BULL. They are criminals because they are calling it a crisis and using it to push their agenda, gain control of things they shouldn't, and make hundreds of billions.
The UN needs to get its nose out of everything and focus on peace negotiations and nothing else. No UN global gun ban, no UN global taxes, no UN carbon taxes, no UN controlled internet, no UN police force in the USA, no UN manipulating countries or businesses for their agenda. Down with the UN. The UN wants a global government. No thank you.
OMG are you still talking about Al Gore. Al Gore is not a scientist. NASA has tons of information on
Climate Change and what to expect so does the Pentagon and the EPA. For your own good get educated about Climate Change from those who have been studying it for decades and have the equipment to do it. Go to the NASA site and check all the data. Also it was during Ford's time 1976 when NASA was told to check on the atmosphere as an ongoing responsibility. Try checking the past to find out it was
Republican presidents that cared about clean water and air. You are giving Al Gore way too much credit here. It wasn’t until Exxon and the Koch brothers started to hammer on the Republicans to change their tune. Now they want to deregulate and take power away from an organization they started the EPA. It is sad very sad indeed.
Personally I don't think any Professional who put a life time of research and work wants to be minimized by someone who doesn't even have the credentials. Get a PHD in Physics work with NASA and find out for yourself.
As for the UN they need to push China because they cause more green house gases then us and NASA stated it the rate of change that counts. Meaning China can't use that tired old line that the US caused it and China should get a free pass. If the rate of decreased emission are universal then there is a real chance.
Dear hmphh (if that is your real name): Try this at home. Increase your blood levels to .03% of cobra snake venom and see if .03% really is nothing. Throughout time the earths average temperature has always been in lockstep with the levels of CO2. When CO2 goes up temperature goes up.
Should I buy the pontoon boat or not?!!!
"Don't believe everything the UN, Al Gore, Democrats, and the liberal media is saying about Global Warming."
I don't.
I get my information from peer-reviewed science papers. As should you.
If you can get over your absolute obsession with Al Gore for just a moment you might be interested to read this latest study which shows:
Out of 13,950 peer-reviewed climate research papers published in teh last 20 years only 24 dispute AGW.
Yep.
13.950 papers. 24 deniers.
So much for the fossil fuel lobby's "there is no consensus"
Oh Dear. Yet another denialist lie bites the dust.
#.ULKDcIc8DTo
http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/global-temperature-report-july-2012-from-the-university-of-alabama-at-huntsville/
I'd rather listen to someone here in the United States than listen to someone at the United Nations.
One big factor to point out. Over two thirds of the current weather stations in the US used to collect data have been found to be improperly sited. Too close to buildings, parking lots, air conditioners, even barbeque grills. All man made things that absorb more heat and radiate it back out more slowly than natural surroundings. This was the weather system that recorded this years July as the hottest ever. But NOAA has a new system in place. This system has the weather stations properly sited. On average this system recorded temperatures 2 degrees cooler than the corrupted system. This new system shows that 2012 was 1.9 degrees COOLER than the record set back in the 1930s. Some of those new correctly sited weather stations recorded temperatures as much as 7 degrees cooler than the nearest corrupted site.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/09/17/noaa-experiment-shows-us-temperatures-not-as-warm-as-reported/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/08/an-incovenient-result-july-2012-not-a-record-breaker-according-to-the-new-noaancdc-national-climate-reference-network/
Does anyone really believe that the weather stations in other countries are in any better shape?
Rural weather stations do not show the temperature increase that urban stations do. So global warming IS man made but it is the Urban Heat Island effect that has caused it not CO2.
If is easy to understand that older temperature records were less affected by man made structures. There were fewer buildings, not as many people living so close together and certainly not the paved roads that we have today. The old records are more honest, more reliable, less corrupt.
But then they have the gall to "adjust" the temperature records. They have made the older uncorrupted temperatures COOLER and the newer UHI influenced temperatures WARMER. Why? To show their claimed warming. That's the only way it exists, by changing the past and altering the present.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/9708144/Doha-Global-warming-is-slowing-down-says-Met-Office.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/29/wmo_global_temp_figures_2012_doha_ninth_hottest/