A 2012 State of the Climate report released last week re-established that last year was one of the 10 hottest on record,with extreme weather in various corners of the globe signalling a new normal. Meant to be a guide for policymakers,the report did not attribute the changes in climate to any one factor,but made note of continued increases in heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The report drew contributions from 384 scientists from 52 countries. Its conclusions:
* Global surface temperatures land and water were the eighth or ninth warmest ever
* In the decade leading up to 2012,global temperatures actually declined by .05 degrees C,though 50-year trend indicates global temperatures increased about .15 degree C per decade
* Sea levels reached a record high,after a sharp decrease in 2011 possibly linked to the phenomenon La Nina
* Arctic sea ice shrank to its smallest summer minimum since satellite records began 34 years ago,while Antarctic sea ice reached a record high
* More than 97 per cent of the ice sheet covering Greenland melted at least a bit in the summer of 2012,four times greater than the 1981-2010 average
* Ocean heat was near record high levels in the upper .8 km of water; temperatures also increased in the deep ocean