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Category: Environment

Global warming and climate change, two different things that are also part of the same bigger problem - too many greenhouse gases make crazy weather, which is not good.

NOAA stands for the National-Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - it's a world-leading atmospherics research base in North America and they provide us with some very useful data for forecasting surf.

They also have a proper job and as part of that, this month they reported that June 2010 was the warmest month on record, judged by combined global and ocean surface temperature. The January-June and April-June 2010 periods were also the hottest observed, since records began in the late nineteenth century. Just using average land surface temperatures, June and the April-June period were also hottest, while January-June ranks second hottest globally, behind 2007.

During June, the combined global and ocean surface temperature was 16.2°C, 0.6°C above the 20th century average. Land temps rose above the 20th century average of 55.9°C by 1.07°C.

So is this global warming? Poignantly NOAA illustrated the concept that just because the overall trend continues steadily upward not every place is affected similarly; that cooler than average temperatures were felt in Scandinavia, southern China, and the northwest US. Furthermore, in Spain nationwide temperatures were 0.4°C above the long-term average, the coolest June since 1997.

The scientists point out that climate change is more than just global warming. The average temperature of the whole earth is increasing steadily due to greenhouse gas emissions, but the reality of climate change is that it's about increased entropy - randomness, in the climate, atmospherics and ultimately weather that are the risk. Greater changes in weather, cooler cool spots and hotter hot spells, downpours of rain, deep snows and hurricanes - the accelerated changes in climate are bad news for humans on a safety level, but fundamentally worse due to the struggles of many species to adapt to environmental change.

This confirmation of increasing climate change is another worrying reminder that it's probably time to start thinking about renewable energy before it's too late. Of course, this all depends on the scientists being able to communicate this effectively and the media to understand it. Easier said than done.