Only North America Experienced Cooler than Average Temps in 2009

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 12. 8.09
Business & Politics, TreeHugger.com

It's rather unfortunate that a story like this requires reporting, but it's understandable: many fail to accept that global temperatures are rising on the grounds that last summer was cold where they live. Of course, that ignores data meticulously collected around the globe, but we humans are reactionary creatures--it's the way we're built. If we come out of an abnormally cool, rainy, summer, and then hear the likes of Beck or Limbaugh declaring global warming a hoax, we're going to be more apt to listen. So here's the hard truth: 2009 was an exceptionally hot year--maybe the 2nd hottest of the decade--for everywhere but North America.

Here are the details, via Climate Progress:

What makes these record temps especially impressive is that we're at "the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," according to NASA. It's just hard to stop the march of anthropogenic global warming, well, other than by reducing GHG emissions, that is . . . Unfortunately, the warming isn't even across the globe:

Unfortunately, that is, because people are apt to be confused by conflicting accounts: what there bodies tell them, and what the vast consensus of science says:

This year above-normal temperatures were recorded in most parts of the continents. Only North America (United States and Canada) experienced conditions that were cooler than average. Given the current figures, large parts of southern Asia and central Africa are likely to have the warmest year on record. [Actually, NOAA says "The average annual temperature for the contiguous United States is projected to be above normal." It was the third coolest October for the contiguous 48 states.]

Finally, CP concludes, aptly:

That is no doubt one reason why Americans -- or at least conservative Americans -- have grown in skepticism this year: They have been bombarded with anti-scientific disinformation on "global cooling," while at the same time failing to personally experience a very warm year.

So here's a heads up to all those folks: the 00's were the hottest decade on record.