If you're still not convinced...

It's all about extremes...and they're happening all over the world.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released a statement on the global climate on December 14, 2006.

“The global mean surface temperature in 2006 is currently estimated to be + 0.42°C above the 1961-1990 annual average (14°C). That may not seem like a lot but if you're aware of the effects of temperature changes + rates of reactions.. it's pretty significant in such a short time period.

The year 2006 is currently estimated to be the sixth warmest year on record. Final figures will not be released until March 2007.

Averaged separately for both hemispheres, 2006 surface temperatures for the northern hemisphere are likely to be the fourth warmest and for the southern hemisphere the seventh warmest in the instrumental record from 1861 to the present.

Since 1976, the global average temperature has risen sharply, at 0.18°C per decade. In the northern and southern hemispheres, the period 1997-2006 averaged 0.53°C and 0.27°C above the 1961-1990 mean, respectively.

The beginning of 2006 was unusually mild in large parts of North America and the western European Arctic islands, though there were harsh winter conditions in Asia, the Russian Federation and parts of eastern Europe.

Canada experienced its mildest winter and spring on record, the USA its warmest January-September on record and the monthly temperatures in the Arctic island of Spitsbergen for January and April included new highs with anomalies of +12.6°C and +12.2°C, respectively.

Persistent extreme heat affected much of eastern Australia from late December 2005 until early March with many records being set. Spring 2006 (September-November) was Australia’s warmest since seasonal records were first compiled in 1950. Heat waves were also registered in Brazil from January until March (e.g. 44.6°C in Bom Jesus on 31 January – one of the highest temperatures ever recorded in Brazil).

Several parts of Europe and the USA experienced heat waves with record temperatures in July and August. Air temperatures in many parts of the USA reached 40°C or more. The July European-average land-surface air temperature was the warmest on record at 2.7°C above the climatological normal.

Autumn 2006 (September-November) was exceptional in large parts of Europe at more than 3°C warmer than the climatological normal from the north side of the Alps to southern Norway. In many countries it was the warmest autumn since official measurements began: records in central England go back to 1659 (1706 in The Netherlands and 1768 in Denmark).”

Who's full of hot air???

Gore's full of hot air: Day
By Sheila Dabu

OTTAWA (CP) - A November cold snap prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to dismiss Al Gore's climate change crusade in a weblog post brimming with mockery. Day's letter to his constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla constituents last week opened with a shot at the former U.S. vice-president. "Hey who knows, maybe Al Gore is right," Day wrote in the post dated Dec. 6.

"Maybe all my constituents living high up on the West Bench, or Lakeview Heights, or the hills of Logan Lake will soon be sitting on lakeside property as one of the many benefits of global warming."

Gore has long campaigned against what he believes is government inaction on climate change. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, did record business. Polls suggest the Conservatives' environmental package has been a dud with voters. Those same surveys suggest the environment could be a ballot-box issue.

When asked about the blog after question period, Day walked away from reporters and refused to comment.
Day wrote that a recent cold snap had him "begging for Big Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24."
About 22 towns and cities in British Columbia "had broken all-time records for paralyzing frigid temperatures," Day wrote.

But the Minister for Public Safety said that "rather than feeling badly for yourself," constituents should consider the upside: "For every hour it's that cold, millions of those nasty ravenous pine beetles who are destroying our forests are having their pesky little heads and jaws frozen, literally to death."

John Bennett, senior policy adviser at the Sierra Club of Canada, said Day's comments are symptomatic of the government's position on the environment. "What the blog demonstrates is what the government of Canada really thinks about climate change, that it is something to joke about, not something to take seriously and the policies of the government reflect that," he said.

Bennett added that the Harper government cut almost all climate change programs when it came into power.
The government began disassembling Canada's Climate Change Program last March when programs announced in Action Plan 2000 were not renewed.

Liberal environment critic John Godfrey said Day's punch line was lost on him. "The problem is that when a senior cabinet minister, laughs away and dismisses the greatest challenge facing the planet today . . . and reduces it to, 'Well, it's snowing, therefore, where's climate change, and even if there was climate change, maybe everyone would be happy because they'd have beach front property,' this is to trivialize a huge problem for the planet," Godfrey said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said she wasn't surprised by Day's comments. "Mr. Stockwell Day sums up what David Suzuki said about parliamentarians, that they're all ignoramuses," May said in a telephone interview. (yay David Suzuki!)

These comments reflect his ignorance about his own portfolio as minister of public safety, May said.

"The most significant threat to Canadian security is climate change, not terrorism."

Climate change is affecting New Brunswick's coast

Environment Canada researchers who have spent the last three years monitoring New Brunswick's eastern coastline have concluded sea water levels are on the rise. The scientists will release a study Tuesday morning in Moncton, explaining how climate change is affecting New Brunswick's coast.

The New Brunswick Sea Level Rise Project got its start after several storm surges hit the New Brunswick shoreline in January 2000. Pounding waves ate away metres of sandy coastline and several communities were flooded.
Residents of communities along the Northumberland coast have been complaining that storm surges are on the rise, and during the past three years, scientists have confirmed that evidence.Project co-ordinator Real Daigle says storms are likely to worsen as sea levels continue to rise.

On Tuesday morning, Daigle will unveil a series of maps showing specific areas where the water level is having an impact. He'll also show detailed images of erosion along the southeastern coast of New Brunswick.
Daigle says the new research will help communities react to changing weather patterns. "We look at adaptation options: what people can do to adapt to sea level rises, and the existing problems that we are seeing right now."

New study on rate of Arctic melting

Global warming could melt almost all of the ice in the Arctic during the summer months by the year 2040, according to a study to be published Tuesday.

If greenhouse gases continue to build at their current rate, the study found, the Arctic's ice cover would go through periods of stability followed by abrupt retreat.

One simulation projects that by 2040, only a small amount of perennial ice would remain on the north coasts of Greenland and Canada during the summer months. This would be a more dramatic change in Arctic climate than anything we've seen so far, according to McGill University professor Bruno Tremblay, one of the study's authors. And it would also have a profound impact on global warming around the world, he said.

"Open water absorbs more sunlight than does ice," Tremblay told CBC News Online. "This means that the growing regions of ice-free water will accelerate the warming trend."

The melting of polar ice creates a positive feedback loop, Tremblay said. Higher temperatures means less ice, and that means more sunlight is absorbed by water, which in turn raises temperatures. This will lead to an accelerated change in climate in a very short time, Tremblay said.

Scenarios simulated on supercomputers suggest sea ice could diminish enough within 20 years to speed the retreat of Arctic ice four-times faster than at any other time in the observed record. "Right now there is a steady decline. But we're going to reach a tipping point where the decline will happen very quickly and [from which] we can't recover," he said.

Tremblay worked on the study — to be published in the Dec. 12 issue of Geophysical Research Letters — with lead researcher Marika Holland at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and Cecilia Bitz of the University of Washington. The only way to prevent the rapid loss of polar ice is to implement aggressive measures to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels (get your butt in gear, Stephen Harper!), Tremblay said. Previous studies looking at the Canadian Arctic have envisaged similar timetables for the disappearance of permanent ice floes.

In June 2006, University of British Columbia professor Michael Byers said the Northwest Passage would be clear of ice during the summer months in 25 years. A 2004 study by André Rochon, chief scientist on Canada's Amundsen research icebreaker, predicted the waterways would be clear of ice in 50 years.

Castles, cobblestone and the Alps.

I definitely plan to travel to Europe; it's probably in the top 3 places on my long list of places to travel to. Castles, cobblestone streets, valleys and of course the incredible mountains encompassing the gorgeous valleys -- the Alps.

Speaking of the Alps.. what's going on in the Alps these days?

VIENNA, Austria — Europe's Alpine region is going through its warmest period in 1,300 years, the head of an extensive climate study said Tuesday.

"We are currently experiencing the warmest period in the Alpine region in 1,300 years," Reinhard Boehm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics said.

Boehm based his comments on the results of a project conducted by a group of European institutes between March 2003 and August 2006. Their aim was to reconstruct the climate in the region encompassing the Rhone Valley in France to the west, Budapest, Hungary to the east, Tuscany, Italy to the south and Nuremberg, Germany to the north over the past 1,000 years.

Boehm said the current warm period in the Alpine region began in the 1980s, noting that a similar warming occurred in the 10th and 12th centuries. However, the temperatures during those phases were "slightly under the temperatures we've experienced over the past 20 years."

Humans first had an impact on the global climate in the 1950s, Boehm said, noting that at first, the release of aerosols into the atmosphere cooled the climate. Since the 1980s, however, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have warmed it up, he said. "It will undoubtedly get warmer in the future," Boehm said.

Sponsored by the European Union, the project sought to homogenize climate data collected in the Alpine region over the past 250 years. Climate reconstruction focused on seven parameters, including temperature, sunshine periods and cloud cover. Tree rings and ice core measurements were also taken into consideration.

The unseasonably warm weather this autumn has caused concern in Austria's ski resorts, where slopes are still largely covered in green grass instead of snow. Many, such as St. Anton am Arlberg, have had to postpone the start of their skiing season and some have tried attracting tourists with alternative programs, such as hiking.

Austrian ski resorts usually open at the end of November or early December. Wilma Himmelfreundpointner, deputy director of the St. Anton Tourist Office, said the resort has the capability to cover 80 percent of its slopes with fake snow. But the current mild temperatures and sunshine make that an impossible option at the moment, she said.

"What can you do? One can't change the weather," Himmelfreundpointer said, adding some tourists go on day trips to nearby glaciers in order to ski.

In some cases, organizers have had to be creative to make sure their events take place as planned. In Hochfilzen, Tyrol, organizers of an upcoming international race went to the Grossglockner -- Austria's highest mountain -- to get snow they needed to prepare their track.

It took about five days to truck between 7,000 and 8,000 cubic metres (9,200 - 10,500 cubic yards) of snow from the Grossglockner, said organizer Thomas Abfalter.