2008 Is Coolest Year So Far In Past 5 Years

LONDON- The first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Wednesday.

The whole year will almost certainly be cooler than recent years, although temperatures remain above the historical average.

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More at the Huffington Post Extreme Weather big news page

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Comments

[JohnKdrew]

Hi
I agree about Australia...the urgency of the current environmental disaster around the Murray mouth today has brought Australia what might be the world"s first climate change triage challenge. The question is " do we save the Coorong at all costs, leave it to become something different as is already happening or invest heavily in "palliative care", which will use up resources without ultimately changing its fate? See www.climatechangetriage.net

[CamJam]

It was a rather a cool SUMMER this year here in Portland, Oregon - totally unlike what we had in 2006 & 2007. However, we did reach record hot temps last week, and within a few days, it was like early Fall!
Really strange.

But still, Mt Hood does not look as majestic as she used to... and I've lived here all my life dating back to the 60's.

[shockmagog]

What a relief. We need a little break before the temperature climbs again.

Get over yourselves, Bushfools, God's left the building and is unable to do all your work for you.

[Gary47]

Here come the right-wing global warming deniers, marching in lockstep, nothing else on the mindless minds but digging up any anecdote anywhere, stripping it of context, ignoring science, and running all around blathering their naked nonsense.

[ohiomark]

We don't "ignore science". We look at ALL science.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,176495.shtml

There cannot be a "consensus" in science, it's not up to a vote.

[Gary47]

... proving my point.

[Birdman]

Pretty much the entire article is filled with half truths, For example it states some scientist blame the incresed temperatures on the suns output, fact the suns output has increased about 0.002% hardly enough to affect temperatures that have been recorded. I'm not even going to address the rest of the article, simply because it is filled with pure BS. The last question to you would be if you think man is not causing global warming and we do nothing and you are wrong what will happen? Pretty much the end of life as we know it. If you are not wrong but we cut down on using oil and clean up the enviroment anyway what will happen? Nothing but a much cleaner and a nicer place to live. Seems pretty obvious to me what the choice should be.

[DuganS1]

The earth has warmed and cooled throughout the millions of years of its existence. The earth has also been much much warmer and much much cooler than it is now during just the last 5000 years, and it is still around its average temperature in that time. It's very possible that burning fossil fuels has raised the earth temperature a little bit, but the increase in the earths temp in the past 100 years is very very minor relative to the fluctuations it has seen just in the last 5000 years. The problem is not that global warming is bad for the planet, because it's now, it's that it can be bad for some humans, especially those that are afraid of a little change.

[ohiomark]

Look Libs, all your "good work" paid off.

Can we go back to driving our SUV's now? It's been a cool summer and I want to warm things up so I can use my pool.

Get over youselves Libs, you can't change or control the climate, just adapt to it.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

Sure- get it out while you can. Solar heating of pools works really good too. Technology has been around for a long time and is proven.

Looks like you wont be able to sell you SUV so mine as well enjoy it now.

[jsgaetano]

"Get over youselves Libs, you can't change or control the climate, just adapt to it."

OMG... you're ADVOCATING evolution?

You're gonna burn in hell, you damn dirty liberal!!!

[Birdman]

Go ahead drive your SUV, but do not complain to me when you are sitting there with no food to eat or have nowhere to go skiing. Oh I know you probably do not ski ok, but you still eat.

[Nim]

You should know that a minor anomaly over a short span of time is relatively meaningless in this discussion for either side. You can't extrapolate anything about a batter's general performace just because a batter hits 4 for 4 or (0 for 4) on a single baseball game. A cooler than normal (or warmer than normal) 6 month period is as equally meaningless to draw any conclusion about climate change in of itself.

Scientists have in fact have compiled lots of data to make this conclusion based on studying conditions found in the sea as well as climate studies in the polar regions. They analyze climate conditions spanning thousands of years to draw this conclusion.

Be skeptical, but be open to facts that might not jive with your way of fthinking.

[ChimpNchief]

Tell that to Australia. Is their drought over? Is China still turning to desert or did that 2000 sq miles per year finally stop? What about the new crack in the Greenland ice cap that is rapidly expanding? How did that all of a sudden happen?

When the glaciers return I'll start to believe it is getting cooler. Show me some hard evidence like satellite images of ice reforming or animal migrations reversing or pine beetle populations diminishing. THEN I'll believe it's getting cooler.

[ccpostman]

Coolest where?
Weather is regional. What area are you talking about???
Very misleading title.

The ice caps are still melting from what I read.

[UnbiasView]

When People in California leave the coasts for dry land, then we can start talking about the "rapid rise" in the ocean and the effect of global warming. The biggest GW pushers are in California but they don't seem to fear the "deadly effects" they are promoting.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

Sea level rise due to GW has a long time horizon (correct us of time horizon), and much of California's coasts would be protected by high cliffs. Florida will probably be more severely impacted. But again, that is a pretty far away forecast with plenty of time for residence, and even industry to move. I believe there are other affects of GW - which are already beginning, could be that I am just from California. There is animal displacement, bug displacement as climates change. There is more erratic weather patterns, flooding and drought shifting.

So I think it is time for everyone to start talking about the effect of global warming.

California is also leading with alternative energy (CONUS)- so we may be pushing it, but we are also changing our actions based on it.

I believe you are oversimplifying or not investigating the facts.

[KillTheMessenger]

Unbias exhibits a perspective that roughly goes from his comfort chair to his microwave oven to warm up his tv dinner.

[Birdman]

Actually there are some areas in California that have been building walls to keep the ocean out of their back yards. and these are older homes that were far from the water when they were built now at high tide they have flooding problems.

[KillTheMessenger]

The coolest half year in five years? Wow... GW must be a hoax. The coolest half year in five years. Eat your hats, libs!

:-)

[txrotorhead]

KTM,
I still have deniers tell me, "It snowed in May, so GW is a hoax!" Some just can't grasp the concept that there is a difference between weather and climate.

[UnbiasView]

The only constant is between weather & climate is that no one can predict it correctly . . .

[KillTheMessenger]

Which feeds into my constant suspicion that the current sorry state of America is nothing but a consequence of its failure to educate its children in even the most trivial of topics.