The world is hotter than ever according to new temperature data. March, April, May and June set records, making 2010 the warmest year worldwide since record-keeping began in 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

"It's part of an overall trend," says Jay Lawrimore, climate analysis chief at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. "Global temperatures ... have been rising for the last 100-plus years. Much of the increase is due to increases in greenhouse gases."

There were exceptions: June was cooler than average across Scandinavia, southeastern China and the northwestern U.S., according to NOAA's report.


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Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sent a letter clarifying the panel’s media policy to the 831 lead authors and review editors of its next set of assessments. He had tried to do this in a letter sent last week, but the first attempt  created a stir by suggesting that the authors “keep a distance” from reporters. Some of the lead authors, environmental communicators and journalists (me included) complained that while the letter contained useful advice, the admonition to avoid the press provided precisely the wrong signal after nearly a year of turmoil, some related to a lack of openness. The letter also alludes to  a three-page primer on interacting with reporters that was distributed a week ago to the panel authors. Here’s an excerpt and link to Pachauri’s letter as a pdf file: "These documents sent contradicting messages on a vitally important subject — how we communicate to the public. In my letter, I cautioned you to “keep a distance from the media” if asked about your work for the I.P.C.C. This was a poor choice of words on my part and not reflective of I.P.C.C. policy. My only intent was to advise new authors not to speak “on behalf of the I.P.C.C.” because we are an inter-governmental body consisting of 194 states. I want to reassure everyone the I.P.C.C. is a transparent organization. At a time when the work of climate scientists is undergoing intense scrutiny, it is essential that we promote clear and open communication with the media and the public."

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The Great Lakes are feeling the heat from climate change. As the world's largest freshwater system warms, it is poised to systematically alter life for local wildlife and the tribes that depend on it, according to regional experts. And the warming could also provide a glimpse of what is happening on a more global level, they say. "The Great Lakes in a lot of ways have always been a canary in the coal mine," Cameron Davis, the senior adviser to the U.S. EPA on the Great Lakes, said last week. "Not just for the region or this country, but for the rest of the world." And it seems the canary's song is growing ever more halting. Lake Superior, which is the largest, deepest and coldest of the five lakes, is serving as the "canary for the canary," Da vis said at a public meeting of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force last week, pointing to recent data trends. Total ice cover on the lake has shrunk by about 20 percent over the past 37 years, he said. Though the change has made for longer, warmer summers, it's a problem because ice is crucial for keeping water from evaporating and it regulates the natural cycles of the Great Lakes. But the warming shows no sign of abatement. This year, the waters in Lake Superior are on track to reach -- and potentially exceed -- the lake's record-high temperatures of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which occurred in 1998. Analysis of several buoys that measure temperatures in the lake reveal that the waters are some 15 degrees warmer than they would normally be at this time of year, Jay Austin, a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota, Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory, said in a recent interview.

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Simple measures such as turning electrical appliances off at the mains and installing energy-efficient lightbulbs could slash the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by about 40 megatonnes a year, or up to one third, according to new research which says that cutting electricity consumption is up to 60 per cent more effective than previously thought. Such basic lifestyle changes would be the equivalent of removing about 10 large gas-fired power stations from operation. The calculations, which come from the highly regarded Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, suggest that the Government has vastly underestimated the potential savings from encouraging people to use less electricity.

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