Nov 18 2009

Where's the Warming?

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Why do so many Americans stubbornly resist scientific evidence that carbon pollution is causing global warming? Perhaps because they believe their lying eyes.

The powerful scientific case for global warming continues to mount: The latest global temperature data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies confirm that the world just experienced the hottest June-to-September period on record and the second hottest October on record.

But look more closely at the regional data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and you'll see one part of the world got a lot cooler this October: the continental United States. (Alaska, along with most far-northern latitudes, was sharply warmer.)

"For the contiguous U.S., the national temperature average during October 2009 was much-below average, ranking in the top five coolest such month," NOAA reported. For the first ten months of the year, most of the globe experience "warmer-than-average conditions . . . with the exception of cooler-than-average conditions across parts of Canada, the northern contiguous United States, the southern oceans, and along the northeastern Pacific Ocean."

Within the United States, nearly all of the Midwest and Eastern seabord have experienced cooler-then-normal temperatures this year, though most of the Southwest (including Southern California) experienced above normal temperatures.

Such regional cooling is almost certainly temporary, a random local deviation from the rising global average.

Still, it's no wonder much of the public is no longer clamoring for action. They can't see or feel what all the fuss is about. Talk of climate models and greenhouse gas effects is simply too abstract when the thermometer outside registers below normal.

 As one blogger commented, "If you look back at 1937, during the middle of the dust bowl, the only thing that finally made Congress act to form the Civilian Conservation Corps was when soil from the plains blew straight into the Senate during a debate about Dust Bowl policy. If only a hurricane or a heat wave would hit D.C during the clean energy Senate hearings, then Congress might finally get some much needed fear in their hearts."

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