The National Climatic Data Center released a preliminary report yesterday announcing that 2006 was the warmest year on record, up 2.2° Fahrenheit (1.2° C) from the previous year.
“People should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate”
—Jay Lawrimore, NOAA
The report said: “The unusually warm start to this winter reflected the rarity of Arctic outbreaks across the country as an El Niño episode continued in the equatorial Pacific. A contributing factor to the unusually warm temperatures throughout 2006 also is the long-term warming trend, which has been linked to increases in greenhouse gases. This has made warmer-than-average conditions more common in the U.S. and other parts of the world.”
The center said there are indications that the rate at which global temperatures are rising is speeding up.
A Connecticut newspaper quotes Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, as saying, “no one should be surprised that 2006 is the hottest year on record for the U.S. When you look at temperatures across the globe, every single year since 1993 has been in the top 20 warmest years on record.”
We’ve all got the responsibility. Wondering how can you help?
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