{"id":28177,"date":"2012-02-01T10:15:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T15:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=28177"},"modified":"2012-02-01T10:15:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T15:15:02","slug":"extreme-weather-just-gettin-rollin-super-extreme-weather-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/extreme-weather-just-gettin-rollin-super-extreme-weather-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Weather Just Gettin' Rollin' — Super Extreme Weather Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you follow climate science, you probably are well aware of the fact that even after you turn of the fossil fuel spigot, it takes awhile for the effects of the greenhouse gases to go away. All the more reason to act now<\/strong>, before things get completely out of control. “we are just now experiencing the full effect of CO2 emitted [by] the late 1980s; since CO2 has been increasing by 1 \u2013 3% per year since then, there is a lot more climate change ‘in the pipeline’ we cannot avoid,” Dr Jeff Masters notes int he piece below. “We\u2019ve set in motion a dangerous boulder of climate change that is rolling downhill, and it is too late to avoid major damage when it hits full-force several decades from now. However, we can reduce the ultimate severity of the damage with strong and rapid action. A boulder rolling downhill can be deflected in its path more readily early in its course, before it gains too much momentum in its downward rush. For example, the\u00a0International Energy Agency<\/a>\u00a0estimates that every dollar we invest in alternative energy before 2020 will save $4.30 later. There are many talented and dedicated people working very hard to deflect the downhill-rolling boulder of climate change\u2013but they need a lot more help very soon.” Exactly—acting now is the common-sense, conservative<\/strong> thing to do.\u00a0Now, for a good, thorough overview of global warming and climate science, and more on this issue above, this full post below by\u00a0Meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters of WunderBlog should bring the point home (via Climate Progress<\/a>):<\/em><\/p>\n by Jeff Masters, cross-posted from\u00a0the WunderBlog<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The year 2011 tied with 1997 as the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880, NOAA\u2019s\u00a0National Climatic Data Center<\/a>\u00a0said last week.\u00a0NASA<\/a>\u00a0rated 2011 as the 9th warmest on record. Land temperatures were the 8th warmest on record, and ocean temperatures, the 11th warmest. For the Arctic, which has warmed about twice as much as the rest of the planet, 2011 was the\u00a0warmest year on record<\/a>\u00a0(between 64\u00b0N and 90\u00b0N latitude.) The year 2011 was also the 2nd wettest year over land on record, as evidenced by some of the unprecedented flooding Earth witnessed. The wettest year over land was the previous year, 2010.<\/p>\n <\/a> Figure 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Departure of global temperature from average for 2011. The Arctic was the warmest region, relative to average. Image credit:\u00a0NASA Earth Observatory.<\/a><\/em> How much of the warming in recent decades is due to natural causes?<\/big><\/strong><\/p>\n The El Ni\u00f1o\/La Ni\u00f1a cycle causes cyclical changes in global temperatures that average out to zero over the course of several decades. La Ni\u00f1a events bring a large amount of cold water to the surface in the equatorial Eastern Pacific, which cools global temperatures by up to 0.2\u00b0C. El Ni\u00f1o events have the opposite effect. The year 2011 was the warmest year on record when a La Ni\u00f1a event was present. Global temperatures were 0.12\u00b0C (0.2\u00b0F) cooler than the record warmest year for the planet (2010), and would very likely have been the warmest on record had an El Ni\u00f1o event been present instead.<\/p>\n
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