2011 Tied For The 10th Hottest Year On Record: WMO
Oh the timing. As negotiators in Durban, South Africa gather to wrangle over a new climate change agreement this week, Canada is rumoured soon to be formally withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and representatives of many rich nations are now privately admitting that there will be no new climate deal until at least 2020. Meanwhile the World Meteorological Organization is reporting that 2011 will be tied for the 10th hottest year since records began in 1850 (this follows 2010, which was tied for the hottest year ever recorded). Arctic sea ice, a barometer for the entire planet, has shrunk to a record low volume.
“2011 has been a year of extreme weather,” the WMO reported. “Drought in East Africa has left tens of thousands dead; lethal floods submerged large areas of Asia; the United States suffered 14 separate weather catastrophes with damage topping $1 billion each, including severe drought in Texas and the southwest, heavy floods in the northeast and the Mississippi valley, and the most active tornado season ever known.”
Is anyone in Durban paying attention?
