Sunday, July 01, 2012

Increased warmth

News from the US:
Heat Wave Spawns Deadly Severe Thunderstorms | Climate Central:

For the year-to-date, warm temperature records are outpacing cold temperature records by a ration of 7-to-1. Since January 1 there have been 21,402 daily high temperature records set, compared to just 3,338 daily records for cold high temperatures, according to a database maintained by the National Climatic Data Center.

In a long-term trend that demonstrates the effects of a warming climate, daily record-high temperatures have recently been outpacing daily record-lows by an average of 2-to-1, and this imbalance is expected to grow as the climate continues to warm. According to a 2009 study, if the climate were not warming, this ratio would be expected to be even. Other studies have shown that climate change increases the odds of extreme heat events and may make them warmer and longer lasting.
This is what carbon pricing is about.   No, Australia won't solve it alone.  Nor will any country, acting alone.  That's why it's a difficult problem, but sitting around for another 20 years saying "you go first" would be the worst outcome of all.

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