2010, Hottest Year On Record Already, EVER

Despire the irony that Fox News and other peddlers of disinformation were out in full force in January and February claiming that climate change is a myth because half the US received heavy snowfall in two weeks of the year (!) the latest reports in from NASA confirm what many may have expected looking at GLOBAL average temperatures since year end.

And the data is not pretty.  Even though the Sun has been in a period of solar minimum (low sun activity, few sunspots, lower radiated heat to the Earth), for the first six months of this year we, as a planet, have recorded the hottest period on record, both since scientific records were kept, and also compared to modeled temperatures based on thousands of different sampling techniques (ice cores, tree rinks, sedimentation layers etc).

Coupled with a period of low sun activity, the continued trend to hotter and hotter atmospheric temperatures, during a period of increasing CO2 and CH4 concentrations in th atmosphere, clearly indicates the impact of human activity on the long term climate is direct and consequential.

Meanwhile, in addition to the high temperature trend, Rutgers University is tracking ice and snow coverage in the northern hemisphere.   This June represents yet another period of historically low snow and ice coveage in the entire northern hemisphere, compared to historic averages.

Looking at this from another angle, lets compare record temperatures in Spring and June 2010 for the United States.  Of the total record highs and record lows recorded for the month, record high temps are being recorded at a rate of 5 to 1 vs record lows, yet another indicator of unusual temperature increase, all in one very clear direction.   To be clear, this is comparing against normal June temperatures in the historic record.   Almost everywhere is showing unusualy high temperatures.

All very clear signs of a continuing, building rate of temperature increase, sending us toward a path of crop failure, food chain disruption, and ocean chemistry misbalance.  These should be sobering facts for everyone, and a clear sign that action is needed, and serious action, to change this trajectory before we drop off the chasm into a self-sustaining warming cycle pushed ever faster by thawing permafrost and increasing CO2 and CH4 releases into the atmophere.

Remember, this dramatic increase in temperatures in the last decade has occurred while the Sun has been in a period of very low activity.   This will not be helped by the Sun's movement into a period of high activity.  We are entering such a period later this year, and such periods last around 10 - 12 years...