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The year 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2009 (January–October) is currently estimated at 0.44°C ± 0.11°C (0.79°F ± 0.20°F) above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F. The current nominal ranking of 2009, which does not account for uncertainties in the annual averages, places it as the fifth-warmest year. The decade of the 2000s (2000–2009) was warmer than the decade spanning the 1990s (1990–1999), which in turn was warmer than the 1980s (1980–1989). More complete data for the remainder of the year 2009 will be analysed at the beginning of 2010 to update the current assessment.

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.

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe droughts, snowstorms, heatwaves and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world. This year the extreme warm events were more frequent and intense in southern South America, Australia and southern Asia, in particular. La Niña conditions shifted into a warm-phase El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in June. The Arctic sea ice extent during the melt season ranked the third lowest, after the lowest and second-lowest records set in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

This preliminary information for 2009 is based on climate data from networks of land-based weather and climate stations, ships and buoys, as well as satellites. The data are continuously collected and disseminated by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of the 189 Members of WMO and several collaborating research institutions. The data continuously feed three main depository global climate data and analysis centres, which develop and maintain homogeneous global climate datasets based on peer-reviewed methodologies. The WMO global temperature analysis is thus based on three complementary datasets. One is the combined dataset maintained by both the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Another dataset is maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the United States Department of Commerce, and the third one is from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The content of the WMO statement is verified and peer-reviewed by leading experts from other international, regional and national climate institutions and centres before its publication.
Final updates and figures for 2009 will be published in March 2010 in the annual WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate.

The year 2009 (January–October) was again warmer than the 1961–1990 average all over Europe and the Middle East. China had the third-warmest year since 1951; for some regions 2009 was the warmest year. The year started with a mild January in northern Europe and large parts of Asia, while western and central Europe were colder than normal. Russia and the Great Lakes region in Canada experienced colder-than- average temperatures in February and January, respectively. Spring was very warm in Europe and Asia; April in particular was extremely warm in central Europe. Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria reported temperature anomalies of more than +5°C, breaking the previous records for the month in several locations. The European summer was also warmer than the long-term average, particularly over the southern regions. Spain had the third-warmest summer, with hotter summers reported only in 2003 and 2005. Italy recorded a strong heatwave in July, with maximum temperatures above 40°C, and some local temperatures reaching 45°C. A heatwave at the beginning of July affected the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Germany, and some stations in Norway experienced new maximum temperature records.

India had an extreme heatwave event during May, which caused 150 deaths. A heatwave hit northern China during June, with daily maximum temperatures above 40°C; historical maximum temperature records were broken for the summer in some locations.

In late July many cities across Canada recorded their warmest daily temperatures. Vancouver and Victoria set new records, reaching 34.4°C and 35.0°C, respectively. Alaska also had the second-warmest July on record. Conversely, October was a very cold month across large parts of the United States. For the nation as a whole, it was the third-coolest October on record, with an average temperature anomaly of -2.2°C (-4.0°F). Similarly, a very cold October was reported in Scandinavia, with mean temperature anomalies ranging from -2°C to -4°C.

The austral autumn (March to May) was extremely warm in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. With daily temperatures ranging from 30°C to 40°C, several records were broken during this season. By the end of October, an extreme weather situation affected north and central Argentina, producing unusually high temperatures (above 40°C). Conversely, November was abnormally cold in the southern part of the region, with some rare and late snowfalls.
So far, Australia has had the third-warmest year on record. The year 2009 was marked by three exceptional heatwaves, which affected south-eastern Australia in January/February and November, and subtropical eastern Australia in August. The January/February heatwave was associated with disastrous bushfires that caused more than 173 fatalities. Victoria recorded its highest temperature with 48.8°C. The northern region experienced a cold summer, however, with anomalies reaching -3°C to -4°C in some places. Winter was exceptionally mild over much of Australia. Maximum temperatures were well above normal across the entire continent, reaching 6°C to 7°C above normal in some parts. The national maximum temperature anomaly of +3.2°C was the largest ever recorded for any month.

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June’s UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: “We can go into extra time but we can’t afford a replay.”
At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than “old Europe”, must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”.

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.

The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

(Source – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-editorial)

Rt. Hon. Man Mohan Singh
Prime Minister
The Government of India
New Delhi, India

Cc. Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister, Ministry of Environment, The Government of India

Subject: Regarding the statement made by Honorable Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment, Government of India.

We the youth of Nepal are concerned by the statement made by Honorable Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment, and the Government of India that “there is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming and Himalayan glaciers and neither to link the black carbon in the atmosphere with the glaciers”

We would like to kindly draw your attention to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC, various scientific research and reports published carried out and published by individuals and reports published by institutions like Intergovernmental Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Himalayan Glaciers. These researches substantiate the fact that climate change is accelerating glacial retreat in the Hindukush Himalayan region.

Mountaineer Mr. Apa Sherpa who has climbed Everest 19 times has observed changes in the mountain climate over the years. He reported seeing water 8, 000 meter above sea level where one has only witnessed snow in the past. Our own expedition to the Everest base camp has documented rapid changes in the mountain eco-systems. These changes in the climate have already made irreversible impacts on the life and livelihoods of the mountain community.

At the Regional Climate Change Conference FROM KATHMANDU TO COPENHAGEN A Vision for Addressing Climate Change Risks and Vulnerabilities in the Himalayas held in Kathmandu on August 31- September 1, 2009, South Asian countries, including India identified the HinduKush and Himalayan region as a climate change hot-spot to indicate changes due to climate change and how it would affect people and ecosystems from the mountains to the coasts.

We agree on the fact that this area requires further research to establish precise scientific evidences and critical knowledge gaps that exist. But observations and existing scientific literature indicate that unprecedented changes are happening very rapidly in the mountains. We need to further enhance our responses to climate change through the generation of required scientific data and also adaptation strategies at all levels with incremental adaptive steps meshing with agreed regional and global efforts to address the impacts of climate change.

We, the youth of South Asia request you to take a lead in the region to affectively tackle the problems of climate change. We also request you to raise the common voices of the region, including that of the Himalayas in the UNFCCC negotiations and other international forum.

By Sara Svensson

My name is Sara Svensson, and I’m from Sweden. Tomorrow is my 25th birthday, but I won’t be eating birthday cake this year.

I’ve been involved in different kinds of climate activism for most of my life. I studied International Project Management for Social Movements and NGOs, combined with environmental science.

I have committed to participate in Climate Justice Fast, an international hunger strike for climate justice. From today and until we meet again in Copenhagen, I will be eating nothing and drinking only water.

The end date of the fast is still open. When I break the fast depends on what happens in the climate negotiations and in the world. The only thing I can guarantee is that I will end the fast if our demands are met.

Climate change is the defining issue for my generation. Previous generations did not understand the problem, and for future generations it will be too late to do something about it. It is up to us.

I’m undertaking this fast out of love. Love for life, for our beautiful planet with all its species and future generations. There’s nothing more important I can do in my life than to contribute in the strongest possible way, with full devotion, to set an end to climate change and injustice and be part of the movement that will lead us to a sustainable future.

I’m showing how much I care. How much I’m willing to risk, how much I’m prepared to offer. How deeply devoted I am to this cause. I hope that it will inspire others and help the necessary shift to happen.

I love life and health, but I’m willing to risk it to secure the survival of others. Food is good, chewing is fun and I will miss jumping around full of energy. It will not be easy to abstain from something as essential as food.

Still, my personal sacrifice is nothing compared to the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people who already die from climate change each year, and the many millions of people who would be suffering in the years to come if we would fail to solve climate change. Voluntarily abstaining from food is not easy, but it’s possible. Solving climate change is also not an easy task, but it’s possible, and we will.

This is the right thing to do at the right time. Turn to essentials, turn to emotions. The pure, the true, the real. Touch hearts. Push the limits, move on to the next level.

I will enjoy this peaceful time to reflect while others are busy. We will focus on the big picture while COP15 gets lost and stuck in a thousand details.

Now is the time to mobilise the movement for change.

We call on all people to get involved in the climate movement. We know the science. Educate yourself. Think about what’s most important? Change your mindset. Your goal in life can’t be a comfortable life where you consume everything you want. Widen your perspective. Think of the invisible consequences behind your actions. Challenge yourself.

No specific person is to blame. There’s no single enemy responsible for causing the problem. Yet climate change is happening, and it’s deeply unjust and immoral. With knowledge comes responsibility. We ask every single person on this planet to seek for solutions within themselves, and find the courage to act with global consciousness.

Hunger striking is a positive act of humble nonviolence that we are undertaking as extremely concerned citizens. Judging from the support we are getting, a lot of people feel the same way.

We’re not only in a climate crisis, but also a democracy crisis. We must highlight the failure of our democracies to reflect the best interests and opinions of their population.

Many species throughout history have polluted, consumed or overpopulated themselves into extinction. But if we as humanity fail to solve the climate crisis, we may well become the first species who has done so in full knowledge and awareness of its own actions. I believe in humanity, we can’t be that stupid.

Climate change is an opportunity to redefine our common values, and to create the just and sustainable world that most people everywhere want. “The world is ready for change”. This is the start of the sustainability era”.

To move into that era, we have to do all what we can, right now, when there’s still the smallest amount of time left. We must be able to look back and know that we did all what we could do. Maybe I’ll have children one day, and I must be able to look them in the eye.

(Awesome girls and climate campaigners Anna Kennan and Sara Svensson began a hunger strike urging world leaders to take serious and urgent action to solve the climate crisis and demanding an ambitious, fair and LEGALLY binding climate treaty at Copenhagen Climate Summit. This inspiring speech was delivered by Sara on November 6 at the press conference in Barcelona during UNFCCC Barcelona Climate Change Talks 2009. Please support them- whatever you can. You can find more at http://www.climatejusticefast.com)

As the new year begins, Earth seems to lose yet another year from its life.This is an example coming from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Here the writer talks about the problems Bangladesh is facing regarding Global Warming. As you know global warming is a hot topic in the world agenda today and it affects every one of us, doesn’t it?

By Faria Sanjana

News of global warming has sure hit the world hard. Pressing issues on such matters have raised a lot of concerns so that now people can no longer turn a blind eye towards it. Those of you who thought a third-world country, whose carbon dioxide emission is 0.008th of that of the United States was out of danger from the effects of it, are sadly misunderstood.

First of all the placement of the country as a delta of the three rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna makes it susceptible for grave trouble as the sea level rises. Those of us living here all know the tremendous flooding that occurs during the monsoon season. According to a report by the UN, approximately a rise of 40 centimeters of sea level will affect over 13 million people of one-third area of the total land. Appalling, isn’t it?

Among that one-third land falls our very own Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, home to around 200 Royal Bengal tigers and other diverse species. Already depicted as a fragile environment and protected by the World Heritage Site, rising sea levels are causing seawater from the Bay of Bengal to seep through the ground to reach the mangrove trees. Since these trees have a unique way of breathing through their roots, they are significantly cut down on oxygen levels by the salty seawater. The result – a mysterious increase in the number of dead trees and low growth level. If the mangroves disappear then the habitats of a wide variety of birds and monkeys will be hampered. Researchers have predicted that it will take as less as 10 years for the Sundarbans to be wiped out if the current trend continues.

The effects of salinisation do not end here. Moreover salt is contaminating drinking water and fields further up towards the northern region. Crops and harvests are affected terribly and the farmers have to restore to an alternate plan for a living. Shrimp cultivation is a prime option but the profits collected from this business are enjoyed by only a few. The reason for this being the minimum amount of labor needed in the process. Hundreds of people are thus getting unemployed. Stark increase in unfair means like poaching in the Sundarbans has started to take place.

Overall it is not only the wildlife and environment that is getting the aftermath of global warming; the economy of Bangladesh is being hit hard as well. It is projected that by 2035 the rice production will have decreased by 10 percent and wheat by one-third, pushing the country into the brink of starvation. Water supply will also suffer a drastic shortage. Therefore it is our plea to the government and all the concerned authorities to not overlook this matter further. Let us take up all means to protect Bangladesh and its wealth before it’s too late.

N.B: Pictures have been taken from various sources and are not our own.