In terms of climate change, 2010 was remarkable for three things. First, media coverage of it "fell off the map." Network news and traditional print media were the worst. Second, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday, it tied with 2005 for being the warmest year beginning with 1880. Third, in terms of global average precipitation, it was the wettest of those 130 years:
Combined global land and ocean annual surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest such period on record at 1.12 F (0.62 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence (to the 95 percent level) associated with the combined surface temperature is +/- 0.13 F (+/- 0.07 C).*As recently as five years ago, climate-change deniers, some of them funded by energy companies and other self-interested parties, claimed that the Arctic wasn't warming up and smeared scientists who claimed otherwise. Despite the now irrefutable evidence, we have a House of Representatives brimful of climate-change deniers. Having failed to move forward in the past two years on legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the possibility that the 112th Congress will take any positive action in this direction during the next two years is slim indeed. Instead, we'll be seeing intimidatory attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency's Supreme Court-approved efforts to deal with those emissions. Maria Galluci at SolveClimate News writes:
The global land surface temperatures for 2010 were tied for the second warmest on record at 1.73 F (0.96 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the land surface temperature is +/- 0.20 F (+/- 0.11 C).
Global ocean surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the third warmest on record, at 0.88 F (0.49 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the ocean surface temperature is +/- 0.11 F (+/- 0.06 C).
In 2010 there was a dramatic shift in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which influences global temperature and precipitation patterns — when a moderate-to-strong El Niño transitioned to La Niña conditions by July. At the end of November, La Niña was moderate-to-strong.
According to the Global Historical Climatology Network, 2010 was the wettest year on record, in terms of global average precipitation. As with any year, precipitation patterns were highly variable from region to region.
The 2010 Pacific hurricane season had seven named storms and three hurricanes, the fewest on record since the mid-1960s when scientists started using satellite observations. By contrast, the Atlantic season was extremely active, with 19 named storms and 12 hurricanes. The year tied for third- and second-most storms and hurricanes on record, respectively.
Jamie Henn, communications director at nonprofit group 350.org, urged government officials to pay more attention to their own scientists in policymaking.The ignoramuses in Congress don't believe the evidence, Senator. The venal members, those funded by the Koch Bros. and other foes of taking action because they are convinced that it will cut into the bottom line and their power to set policy, don't care. Figuratively and literally, they believe they will escape the ill effects of global warming by moving to higher ground. As for everyone else, the perspective of these foes of climate-change action is the same as it is on the economy: Devil take the hindmost.
“We think that it’s a bitter irony that the year that the Senate failed to pass climate legislation was tied for the hottest year on record,” he told SolveClimate News. “The more the Senate fails to act and even moves in the opposite direction by blocking progress, the more the planet will continue to warm.”
Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), for one, urged fellow policymakers to consider the data in moving climate measures beyond a standstill.
“How many times do we have to be smacked in the face with factual evidence before we address global climate change?” he said in a statement. “Report after report keep confirming it’s getting worse every year. Will we find common ground and adult leadership or keep piling the science on a shelf to collect dust?”
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