Entire Antarctic Shelf splitting away from Continent.

[Jason]

We will continue to disagree here, then. The sun indeed is not the only factor, but I think that the other factors are natural such as wind currents, ocean currents, and geothermal movements. Man is insignificant in this respect, IMO.

I understand your stance on conservation on energy, even though I do not agree with the premise behind it. My whole point is that the methods you use for conservation are the exact same methods that the climate change believers want you to use as well as everybody else on the planet; while your premises are different from each other, your methodology is the same. While you think you may have not taken the same stance as climate changers, you already have by your actions.

Your opinion that man has no significant impact on this planet is your own and I respect that, however, I disagree. 

The climate change believers can tell me whatever they like.  I am still of the capacity to make up my own mind and make my own decisions for whatever reason I dream up.  Even if man-made climate change is false, I still see the benefits of controlling our toxic emissions and promoting and implementing clean energy.  The exhaust from an SUV or coal-fired power plant do other things than release greenhouse gasses into the air.  They polute the air, water, and soil as well as devastate the landscape from which the materials are harvested.  Smog is real, polution from power plants is real, the topping of pristine mountain tops for coal is real.  I don't care if the climate change believers are trying to force their beliefs down my throat or not, I have made up my own mind that the benefits of the methods they are proposing to control something that may or may not exist still posses tangible benefits that enhance the quality of life for my family and future generations.

[BridgeTroll]

Thank you Jason... I am of the same thought process.  I have been an advocate for the environment long before Al Gore came on the scene.  I am also totally unconvinced that A: GW is actually occuring... B: Mans effect on it...if it is occuring... and finally C: The motives of the "greens" are what they say they are.

Meanwhile... I support alternative energy, conservation, recycling, etc... while understanding that the worlds reliance on fossil fuels will endure for many, many years to come.

[Charleston native]

CN: Your views are extremist. Not even RiversideGator can agree with you on this.

An absolutely idiotic response. My view is hardly extremist. While I do think and believe that man is capable of affecting the environment ON A LOCAL LEVEL, man is insignificant in comparison to the sheer size and scope of the earth and its atmosphere. I think RSG would agree with me for the most part, but I think he is more than capable of providing his opinion rather than you or me.

[Lunican]

Refusing to do anything that might be considered environmentally conscious because you fear it's what the "climate changers" want you to do is extremist and silly.

My whole point is that the methods you use for conservation are the exact same methods that the climate change believers want you to use as well as everybody else on the planet; while your premises are different from each other, your methodology is the same. While you think you may have not taken the same stance as climate changers, you already have by your actions.

[BridgeTroll]

This may get the poor guy fired...


http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081218205953.aspx

CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'
Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
12/18/2008 11:02:44 PM

Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads â€" how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming.

“You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant,” Myers said. “Mother Nature is so big, the world is so big, the oceans are so big â€" I think we’re going to die from a lack of fresh water or we’re going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure.”

Myers is the second CNN meteorologist to challenge the global warming conventions common in the media. He also said trying to determine patterns occurring in the climate would be difficult based on such a short span.

“But this is like, you know you said â€" in your career â€" my career has been 22 years long,” Myers said. “That’s a good career in TV, but talking about climate â€" it’s like having a car for three days and saying, ‘This is a great car.’ Well, yeah â€" it was for three days, but maybe in days five, six and seven it won’t be so good. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

“We have 100 years worth of data, not millions of years that the world’s been around,” Myers continued.

Dr. Jay Lehr, an expert on environmental policy, told “Lou Dobbs Tonight” viewers you can detect subtle patterns over recorded history, but that dates back to the 13th Century.

“If we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were probably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous time for mankind,” Lehr said. “If go back to the Revolutionary War 300 years ago, it was very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle.”

Lehr suggested the earth is presently entering a cooling cycle â€" a result of nature, not man.

“The last 10 years have been quite cool,” Lehr continued. “And right now, I think we’re going into cooling rather than warming and that should be a much greater concern for humankind. But, all we can do is adapt. It is the sun that does it, not man.”

Lehr is a senior fellow and science director of The Heartland Institute, an organization that will be holding the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change in New York March 8-10.

Another CNN meteorologist attacked the concept that man is somehow responsible for changes in climate last year. Rob Marciano charged Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” had some inaccuracies.

“There are definitely some inaccuracies,” Marciano said during the Oct. 4, 2007 broadcast of CNN’s “American Morning.” “The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming.”

Marciano also said that, “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we’ve seen,” pointing out that “by the end of this century we might get about a 5 percent increase.”

His comments drew a strong response and he recanted the next day saying “the globe is getting warmer and humans are the likely the main cause of it.”

[Charleston native]

Refusing to do anything that might be considered environmentally conscious because you fear it's what the "climate changers" want you to do is extremist and silly.

Ahhh...you've taken a statement that I made to another individual, took it out of context, and twisted it to satisfy your agenda that concludes that I'm a conservative extremist because of my opinion. This seems to be  a favorite tactic from leftists like yourself. You infer a conclusion without actually understanding my point.

I think we should try to eliminate emitting substances like mercury, sulphur, and other harmful gases into the environment. Again, more nuclear reactors would greatly assist us in this endeavor. I think it is wise to recycle, and I do it all the time. I do not litter, and I think littering indicates laziness and sloth. I turn off the lights and other electronic devices when I leave the room.

These are all methods for conservation and good stewartship of the planet. I just don't perscribe to the levels of insanity by constantly looking for ways to live my life as a greenie.

[Lunican]

The things you listed that you do to help the environment are exactly the types of things you were claiming Jason should not do because it conforms to the agenda of liberals.

It is strange that you view environmentalism as an attack on your religion and politics.

[Charleston native]

Wrong. The things I listed are basic methods of conservation and good stewartship. Do you honestly think littering is a method of environmental liberalism? Geez, that's just common sense. Mandatory conversion of incandescent light bulbs to CFLs in hopes (literally) of lessening environmental impact, giving up your automobile to be solely reliant on public transit, building solar cell and wind farms, driving a "Smart" car, using ethanol to replace fuel, inhibiting oil drilling...those actions and many others are what I abhor because they lack logical thought and are what is considered necessary to be fully "green".

I have to go back to work, so I can't get into any of the detail...you figure it out.

[Lunican]

Those things really shouldn't make you mad. If people want to use public transit and drive smart cars, let them. Solar and wind farm research is also good.

Also, stock up now on incandescent bulbs and you can enjoy them for the rest of your life.
Don't complain about your electric bill though.

[RiversideGator]

Excellent piece here from Australia.  Common sense is an uncommon virtue in the global warming community.  This article looks at the predictions made by the alarmists and then looks at what has actually happened.

Top 10 dud predictions

Andrew Bolt

December 19, 2008 12:00am

GLOBAL warming preachers have had a shocking 2008. So many of their predictions this year went splat.

Here's their problem: they've been scaring us for so long that it's now possible to check if things are turning out as hot as they warned.

And good news! I bring you Christmas cheer - the top 10 warming predictions to hit the wall this year.

Read, so you can end 2008 with optimism, knowing this Christmas won't be the last for you, the planet or even the polar bears.

1. OUR CITIES WILL DIE OF THIRST

TIM Flannery, an expert in bones, has made a fortune from books and lectures warning that we face global warming doom. He scared us so well that we last year made him Australian of the Year.

In March, Flannery said: "The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009."

In fact, Adelaide's reservoirs are now 75 per cent full, just weeks from 2009.

In June last year, Flannery warned Brisbane's "water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months".

In fact, 18 months later, its dams are 46 per cent full after Brisbane's wettest spring in 27 years.

In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney's dams could be dry in just two years.

In fact, three years later its dams are 63 per cent full, not least because June last year was its wettest since 1951.

In 2004, Flannery said global warming would cause such droughts that "there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century's first ghost metropolis".

In fact, Perth now has the lowest water restrictions of any state capital, thanks to its desalination plant and dams that are 40 per cent full after the city's wettest November in 17 years.

Lesson: This truly is a land "of drought and flooding rains". Distrust a professional panic merchant who predicts the first but ignores the second.

2. OUR REEF WILL DIE

PROFESSOR Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of Queensland University, is Australia's most quoted reef expert.

He's advised business, green and government groups, and won our rich Eureka Prize for scares about our reef. He's chaired a $20 million global warming study of the World Bank.

In 1999, Hoegh-Guldberg warned that the Great Barrier Reef was under pressure from global warming, and much of it had turned white.

In fact, he later admitted the reef had made a "surprising" recovery.

In 2006, he warned high temperatures meant "between 30 and 40 per cent of coral on Queensland's great Barrier Reef could die within a month".

In fact, he later admitted this bleaching had "a minimal impact".

In 2007, he warned that temperature changes of the kind caused by global warming were again bleaching the reef.

In fact, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network last week said there had been no big damage to the reef caused by climate change in the four years since its last report, and veteran diver Ben Cropp said this week that in 50 years he'd seen none at all.

Lesson: Reefs adapt, like so much of nature. Learn again that scares make big headlines and bigger careers.

3. GOODBYE, NORTH POLE

IN April this year, the papers were full of warnings the Arctic ice could all melt.

"We're actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time," claimed Dr David Barber, of Manitoba University, ignoring the many earlier times the Pole has been ice free.

"It's hard to see how the system may bounce back (this year)," fretted Dr Ignatius Rigor, of Washington University's polar science centre.

Tim Flannery also warned "this may be the Arctic's first ice-free year", and the ABC and Age got reporter Marian Wilkinson to go stare at the ice and wail: "Here you can see climate change happening before your eyes."

In fact, the Arctic's ice cover this year was almost 10 per cent above last year's great low, and has refrozen rapidly since. Meanwhile, sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere has been increasing. Been told either cool fact?

Yet Barber is again in the news this month, predicting an ice-free Arctic now in six years. Did anyone ask him how he got his last prediction wrong?

Lesson: The media prefers hot scares to cool truths. And it rarely holds its pet scaremongers to account.

4. BEWARE HUGE WINDS

AL Gore sold his scary global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth, shown in almost every school in the country, with a poster of a terrible hurricane.

Former US president Bill Clinton later gloated: "It is now generally recognised that while Al Gore and I were ridiculed, we were right about global warming. . . It's going to lead to more hurricanes."

In fact, there is still no proof of a link between any warming and hurricanes.

Australia is actually getting fewer cyclones, and last month researchers at Florida State University concluded that the 2007 and 2008 hurricane seasons had the least tropical activity in the Northern Hemisphere in 30 years.

Lesson: Beware of politicians riding the warming bandwagon.

5. GIANT HAILSTONES WILL SMASH THROUGH YOUR ROOF

ROSS Garnaut, a professor of economics, is the guru behind the Rudd Government's global warming policies.

He this year defended the ugly curved steel roof he'd planned at the rear of his city property, telling angry locals he was protecting himself from climate change: "Severe and more frequent hailstones will be a feature of this change," he said.

In fact, even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admits "decreases in hail frequency are simulated for Melbourne. . ."

Lesson: Beware also of government advisers on that warming wagon.

6. NO MORE SKIING

A BAD ski season three years ago - right after a great one - had The Age and other alarmists blaming global warming. The CSIRO, once our top science body, fanned the fear by claiming resorts such as Mt Hotham and Mt Buller could lose a quarter of their snow by 2020.

In fact, this year was another boom one for skiing, with Mt Hotham and Mt Buller covered in snow five weeks before the season started.

What's more, a study this year in the Hydrological Sciences Journal checked six climate models, including one used by the CSIRO.

It found they couldn't even predict the regional climate we'd had already: "Local model projections cannot be credible . . ."

It also confirmed the finding of a study last year in the International Journal of Climatology that the 22 most cited global warming models could not "accurately explain the (global) climate from the recent past".

As for predicting the future. . .

Lesson: The CSIRO's scary predictions are near worthless.

7. PERTH WILL BAKE DRY

THE CSIRO last year claimed Perth was "particularly vulnerable" and had a 90 per cent chance of getting less rain and higher temperatures.

"There are not many other parts of the world where the IPCC has made a prediction that a drop in rainfall is highly likely," it said.

In fact, Perth has just had its coldest and wettest November since 1991.

Lesson: As I said, don't trust the CSIRO's model or its warnings.

8. ISLANDS WILL DROWN

THE seas will rise up to 100m by 2100, claims ABC Science Show host Robyn Williams. Six metres, suggests Al Gore. So let's take in "climate refugees" from low-lying Tuvalu, says federal Labor. And ban coastal development, says the Brumby Government.

In fact, while the seas have slowly risen since the last ice age, before man got gassy, they've stopped rising for the last two, according to data from the Jason-1 satellite.

"There is no evidence for accelerated sea-level rises," the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute declared last month.

Lesson: Trust the data, not the politicians.

9. BRITAIN WILL SWELTER

The British Met Office is home to the Hadley Centre, one of the top centres of the man-made global warming faith.

In April it predicted: "The coming summer is expected to be a 'typical British summer'. . ."

In fact, in August it admitted: "(This) summer . . . has been one of the wettest on record across the UK." In September it predicted: "The coming winter (is) likely to be milder than average."

In fact, winter has been so cold that London had its first October snow in 74 years -- and on the day Parliament voted to fight "global warming".

Lesson: If the Met can't predict the weather three months out, what can it know of the climate 100 years hence?

10. WE'LL BE HOTTER

SPEAKING of the Met, it has so far predicted 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007 would be the world's hottest or second-hottest year on record, but nine of the past 10 years it predicted temperatures too high.

In fact, the Met this month conceded 2008 would be the coldest year this century.

That makes 1998 still the hottest year on record since the Medieval Warm Period some 1000 years ago. Indeed, temperatures have slowly fallen since around 2002.

As Roger Pielke Sr, Professor Emeritus of Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Science, declared this month: "Global warming has stopped for the last few years."

Lesson: Something is wrong with warming models that predict warming in a cooling world, especially when we're each year pumping out even more greenhouse gases. Be sceptical.

Those, then, are the top 10 dud predictions of that hooting, screaming and screeching tribe of warming alarmists. Look and laugh.

And dare to believe the world is bright and reason may yet triumph.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24820442-5000117,00.html

[Midway ®]

CN, that's stewardship. Stewartship is something they do on "Family Guy".

[RiversideGator]

More proof of global warming:



In China:

Beijing's coldest December day in 57 years
Posted by Eric Mu, December 22, 2008 12:37 PM

The Beijing News
December 22, 2008

Winter truly arrived in Beijing yesterday with the highest temperature of the day down to minus 8.8 ℃. Media reports say it was "the coldest day in December in the last 57 years."

http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/beijing_winter.php

In Canada:

Will Canada see its first white Christmas since '71?

Updated Sun. Dec. 21 2008 9:19 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The first day of winter brought wind-chill warnings, snow and a bevy of storms to cities across Canada on Sunday, potentially laying the groundwork for the first cross-country white Christmas in nearly four decades.

Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips told CTV Newsnet that "it looks like a very good chance" it will be a white Christmas for all parts of Canada for the first time since 1971.

"It's just sort of the beginning of winter, and it's a little much to expect when we have so many different climatic types in this country for it to be frozen and snow-covered from right across the huge country," he told CTV Newsnet on Sunday.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081221/winter_storm_081221/20081221?hub=CTVNewsAt11

In Europe:

SEVERE COLD WAVE TO HIT EUROPE

The development of a major blocking high pressure system over the north atlantic and its subsequent backing west is about to throw most of Europe into the coldest winter weather pattern in many a year. In fact, Temps over the next month or so are liable to average 6-10 degrees F below normal over the center part of the continent with the northwest coldest last, but still getting into the games. Intuitive with this is the likelihood of more than normal snow and ice. As the upper block backs west, arctic discharges from the north and east are liable to bring shots of severe cold back into England and with it enhanced snowfall.

http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp?partner=accuweather

And in the United States:

Bitter cold, high winds chill Midwest

Dec 22, 8:17 AM (ET)

By MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) - Heavily bundled Midwesterners were shuffling quickly from place to place in a bid to spend as little time as possible outside in bone-chilling, subzero cold that was expected to last through Monday morning.

"It's so cold, it feels like needles are pricking my eyes," grumbled 19-year-old Ashley Sarpong of Chicago, a fur-lined hood pulled around her face Sunday as she crossed a wind-swept bridge that crossed the Chicago River. "This is the coldest I've felt all year."

The big freeze was expected to last through Monday morning, the first full day of the official winter season, when wind chill advisories for the region were to expire.

Snowfall was scant after the frigid air mass rolled in, but ice and high winds whipped up snow along roadways and made driving hazardous for holiday travelers.

But the worst danger was from the cold - exacerbated by 20-to-30 mph winds that drove wind chills to 25 degrees below zero, or even lower, according to the National Weather Service.

Monday morning commuters in Dayton, Ohio, were greeted with zero-degree temperatures, the National Weather Service reported. It was in the single digits in Toledo, Cincinnati and Columbus.

Social service workers in Chicago conducted well-being checks and hosted more than 100 people in an overnight warming center, while officials activated an automatic phone message system that called residents to warn them of the cold.

At kickoff in Cleveland for the Browns-Bengals football game Sunday, the temperature was 18 degrees with winds up to 40 mph. Temperatures dipped to minus-6 degrees in two Iowa cities, with wind gusts of 40 mph that made it feel like 35 below zero in areas.

The gusty winds and cold also added to power-outage headaches, with more than 7,100 Ameren customers without power Sunday night, mostly in the Peoria area. In northwest Ohio, about 5,000 homes were without power.

In western New York, a 134-mile stretch of the state Thruway between Buffalo and the Pennsylvania border reopened around 8 a.m. Monday after being closed for about six hours because of blowing snow.

Indiana State Police said weather was a factor Sunday night when a car spun out of control on an icy toll road near New Carlisle, crossed the median and was struck by a semitrailer. All four people in the car were killed.

In southwestern Michigan, about 30 vehicles were involved in a deadly series of pileups on a six-mile stretch of Interstate 94 north of Stevensville, about 175 miles west of Detroit. An Illinois doctor died when his car slammed into a semi-truck that had stopped on the highway in whiteout conditions.

Flights were canceled and delayed at airports on both coasts. Hundreds of travelers were stranded at airports in Phoenix; SeaTac, Wash.; and Arlington, Va.

"There was a lot of people sleeping on the floor, it was a hard cold floor, and the doors kept opening," Rebecca Gray, 30, of South Berwick, Maine, said Monday morning from Reagan National Airport, where she spent the night with about 250 other people including her 3-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. "There were babies last night sleeping out there. Women and children shouldn't have been left like that while people said it's not our problem and went home.'"

The winter blast continued to be felt in the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, the National Weather Service was predicting up to 4 inches more by the Monday morning commute - a lot in a city with few plows and hilly streets.

The heavy snow was believed to have caused the collapse of a large tent over a temporary ice-skating rink in Bellevue, Wash., briefly trapping some of the 10 people inside and slightly injuring one girl. Snow was also suspected in the collapse of an unoccupied building housing a storage business in rural Waitsburg in eastern Washington.

Arizona's third storm in a week was expected to roll in Monday afternoon, bringing up to 10 inches of snow to higher elevations and rain in Phoenix.

Authorities in Boston, no stranger to chilly weather, canceled public schools Monday and Tuesday in the face of an overnight freeze and wind gusts of up to 50 mph.

In North Dakota, the National Weather Service said Bismarck was on track to break a 1916 record for snowfall in December. The city has had 19 inches of snow so far this month, and with 4 more expected Monday night, the record of 21.7 inches could be shattered.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081222/D957P8UO0.html

[Jason]

My turn RiversideGator...

Heatwave fans fires ahead of tourism season 

December 09 2008 at 05:37PM 

Deadly fires around South Africa's coastal city of Cape Town have destroyed hundreds of homes and left three dead ahead of the peak summer tourist season, municipal officials said.

Dry conditions in Cape Town's summer, characterised by gale force winds, have sparked brushfires in the mountains as well as accidental home fires in the shacks that fill informal settlements around the city.

Temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) over the weekend, and by Monday a thick pall of smoke was cast over the city as nine fires raged.

"Over the weekend, in informal settlements we responded to about 27 incidents. There were three deaths that I know of," said the city's chief fire officer Ian Schnetler.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20081209170254429C607607

Adelaide heatwave the longest in recorded history

James Luffman, Tuesday March 11, 2008 - 12:59 EDT

By almost any measure the extended heatwave currently affecting the south of the country is the longest since temperature records began over 120 years ago, according to weatherzone.com.au

Adelaide has reached a maximum temperature of 35 degrees or more each day since the third of this month, today taking the run to nine consecutive days. This sets a new autumn record for the southern capital, where temperature records commenced in 1887.

On Thursday it is likely Adelaide’s run of 35 degree days will reach 11 â€" beating the longest for any month previously set during the heatwave of January 1939, which included the notorious ‘Black Friday’ bushfire disaster across southeast Australia.

No significant cool change is likely to bring relief to the heat across South Australia until at least the middle part of next week.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2008

Source: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/adelaide-heatwave-the-longest-in-recorded-history/8797

South Australia on the brink of new heatwave record

by Steph Ball

South Australia has been suffering in the scorching heat this last week, in a heatwave which is currently on track to become their longest on record. The heatwave is made even more extraordinary in that it has arrived in what is now the start of autumn across Australia.

On Monday temperatures in Adelaide reached 37C (99F) in the city and 38C (100F) at Adelaide Airport. This makes it the eighth consecutive day that temperatures in Adelaide have exceeded 35C (95F). In doing so it has equalled the record set in 1934, making it Adelaide’s longest hot spell in over 70 years.

However, records go back to the 1860’s and if the city reaches 35C (95F) on Tuesday, it will set a new all time record for the state. It may be a close call though since the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a high of 34C (93F) on Tuesday. Tomorrow is expected to be the “cooler” of the week, with the sweltering heat expected to carry on into the weekend. Temperatures from Wednesday are expected to be in the mid to high 30C’s (95-102F).

The hot, dry weather is very much in contrast to cool and wet conditions being experienced further north, across Queensland and parts of New South Wales. Here, low pressure has brought frequent storms across the region and severe floods.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news/10032008news.shtml

2008 among 10 warmest years on record, UN reports

17 December 2008 â€" The year 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, although the global average temperature was slightly lower than previous years of the 21st century, according to the United Nations meteorological agency.
The combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 is estimated at 0.31 degrees Celsius (C) or 0.56 Fahrenheit (F), above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14C, or 57.2F, while the Arctic Sea ice volume during the melt season was its lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

The average temperature of 2008 was moderated by La Niña, a weather phenomenon that shrinks the warm pool water in the central and western Pacific, which developed in the latter half of 2007.

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snowstorms, and heat and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world, with above-average temperatures all over Europe and a remarkably cold winter over Eurasia stretching from Turkey to China, causing hundreds of casualties in Afghanistan and China.

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29342&Cr=climate&Cr1=

[BridgeTroll]

Just a few simple questions that I am sure has no simple answer...  We often see these headlines...

2008 among 10 warmest years on record, UN reports

Is there an official record?  Where is it kept?  Who keeps it?  How far back to they go?  Is it generalized and vague or is it precise with date, time, temp, pressure etc...?  If I want to know these things for say... the entire month of July in Jacksonville in 1812 could I get that info?

[Jason]

Exactly BT.  That is my exact point from the other GW thread.  We don't have enough conclusive evidence to either prove or disprove the theory.  Record breaking temperatures of either extreme are no more a conclusive measure of the global average temperature than walking outside and measuring the temp in your front yard.  This planet is massive and it would take a highly organized conglomeration of all of the top scientists in the world working together for many many years to determine if anything un-natural is happening and figure out what is causing it.