Forget Global Climate warmig, we're gonna freeze!

[waldo]

World Meteorological Organization annual statement for 2011

Temperatures:

The decade 2001-2010 was the warmest since records began in 1850, with global land and sea surface temperatures estimated at 0.46°C above the long-term average (1961-1990) of 14.0°C. Nine of these years were among the ten warmest on record. The warmest year on record was 2010, closely followed by 2005, with a mean temperature estimated at 0.53°C above the long-term average. It was the warmest decade ever recorded for global land surface, sea surface and for every continent.

Most parts of Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Asia and northern Africa recorded temperatures for the decade between 1°C and 3°C above the 1961-1990 average.

Nearly 90% of the countries involved in the assessment experienced their warmest decade on record.

The global temperature increase rate has been “remarkable” during the previous four decades, according to the preliminary summary. The global temperature has increased since 1971 at an average estimated rate of 0.166°C per decade compared to the average rate of 0.06 °C per decade computed over the full period 1881-2010.

[waldo]

When skeptics talk about "settled science" they are talking about the tendency of alarmists to use a few things that are settled to argue that everything is settled. I call it the 'bait and switch' because the term accurately conveys the dishonesty inherent in the alarmist arguments. If alarmists wanted to be honest they would acknowledge that the key scientific questions are unanswered (possibly unanswerable) but they feel that the hypothetical risk is large enough to justify action.

the "science is settled" meme is one regularly trotted out by fake skeptics. Legitimate skeptics realize that proponents of AGW/CC do not recognize science as ever being settled. However, this 'unsettled science' does not negate confidence levels and probabilities of known/recognized understandings within science, nor does it detract from certain aspects of science that are known with near 100% certainty.

[waldo]

from the aforementioned World Meteorological Organization annual statement for 2011

Sea Ice

The decline in the Arctic sea-ice, observed since the end of the 1960s, continued throughout 2001-2010. A historical low Arctic sea-ice extent at the melting period in September was recorded in 2007.

Arctic sea ice extent was again well below average in 2011. The seasonal minimum, reached on 9 September, was 4.33 million square kilometres (35% below the 1979-2000 average) according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. This was the second-lowest seasonal minimum on record, 0.16 million square kilometres above the record low set in 2007. Sea ice volume was even further below average and was estimated at a new record low of 4200 cubic kilometres, surpassing the record of 4580 cubic kilometres set in 2010.

Satellites have shown the fluctuation in sea ice from year to year since 1972. According to scientific measurements, both the thickness and sea ice extent in the Arctic have shown a marked decline over the past 35 years. Data indicate, however, an even more dramatic reduction in Arctic sea ice cover in recent years. The last six years of the decade (2005 to 2010) recorded the lowest five September extents, with 2007 recording the record minimum extent with 4.28 million km2, 39 % below the 1979-2000 reference period.

[waldo]

re: weather extremes & climate change... a new Nature paper - A decade of weather extremes

Abstract:

The ostensibly large number of recent extreme weather events has triggered intensive discussions, both in- and outside the scientific community, on whether they are related to global warming. Here, we review the evidence and argue that for some types of extreme — notably heatwaves, but also precipitation extremes — there is now strong evidence linking specific events or an increase in their numbers to the human influence on climate. For other types of extreme, such as storms, the available evidence is less conclusive, but based on observed trends and basic physical concepts it is nevertheless plausible to expect an increase.

[waldo]

Multiple stressors pushing ocean ecosystems, livelihoods to the brink

A new study coordinated by the Stockholm Environment Institute shows climate change alone could reduce the economic value of key ocean services by up to 2 trillion USD a year by 2100, and urges world leaders to make the oceans a priority in global sustainability goals... the study, Valuing the Ocean, is the work of an international, multi-disciplinary team of experts; a preliminary Executive Summary is being released to inform preparations for the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June.

A key part of the study is a groundbreaking analysis on ocean economics, designed to quantify the costs of ocean degradation, which are often invisible in the cost-benefit analyses that guide policy. The analysis calculates the cost over the next 50 and 100 years respectively in terms of five categories of lost ocean value (fisheries, tourism, sea-level rise, storms, and the ocean carbon sink) under high- and low-emissions scenarios.

Valuing the Ocean - draft Executive Summary: