Toledo Blade: Climate Data: Draw Your Own Conclusions
Filed under: Earth 911 - March 30, 2008
Full disclosure: Average U.S. and global temperatures this past December-February were the coolest—not the warmest—they’ve been for that three-month period since 2001.
That’s according to the highly regarded National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA announced on March 13—a week before spring—that this past December-February average temperature was the 54th coolest in its 103 years of record-keeping, although 0.2 degrees above the 20th century’s average temperature for those same three months.
What should we make of this, given that NOAA also announced on Jan. 15 that 2007 was the 5th-warmest year on record for the world and the 10th-warmest on record for the United States?
Nothing. Climatology is one tricky science. And a fickle one. Anomalies can be found in weather records during any period of time that’s studied.
Look for long-term trends, not occasional burps.
Global warming naysayers downplay the fact that average U.S. temperatures have been warmer over the past 30 years, and that six of the 10 warmest years on record for the United States have occurred since 1998.
They have a point in that our documented weather records are a tiny fraction of Earth’s actual weather history, which presumably goes back millions of years.
But those clamoring for tighter controls on greenhouse gases have a valid point too, in that mankind shouldn’t ignore whatever percentage of inevitable climate change it’s responsible for causing.
More exposure: Toledo’s fledgling solar industries were featured Monday on CNNMoney, building on last year’s recognition from Newsweek and the Economist.
Xunlight and First Solar were the focus. The clip quoted analysts as saying the United States could get as many as three million jobs in the renewable energy sector over the next 20 years if the government comes through with enough support.
To view it, go to http://money.cnn.com/video/#/video/news/2008/03/24/news.acosta.green.cnnmoney. Click on the “Green-collar jobs” link to the right.
Green Space Growth: Total land under the Metroparks of the Toledo Area umbrella will increase to about 10,500 acres once last week’s announced plan to acquire 959 acres in Jerusalem Township for $6 million is completed. That’s an increase of about 3,000 acres, or 40 percent, in the park district’s holdings since Lucas County voters approved a 0.3-mill levy for land acquisition in the fall of 2002. Metroparks calls it the largest period of growth in its 80-year history.
The EPA’s Earth Day Challenge: I loathe those trying to get cheap publicity from Earth Day but applaud the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for challenging the Great Lakes region to turn in 1 million pounds of electronic waste and 1 million pounds of expired or unwanted medicine pills by April 27.
Mary Gade, the U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes national program manager, wants people to “clear out their desk drawers, medicine cabinets, and basements and properly recycle or dispose of their old and unwanted cell phones, computers, TVs, and medicines at a local collection.”
The agency said it is working with Earth 911, on collection events between April 19 and 27. Details are to be posted at www.earth911.org. Groups should go to www.epa.gov/greatlakes/earthday2008 to register their events.
Earth Day is April 22.