Discovering that 2011 features in the top 10 warmest of the past 130 years, may warrant some alarm for concern. The world is warming at a rapid pace as revealed by NASA who released figures that reported 2011 to be the ninth warmest year since 1880.
NASA’s Godard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) monitors the global surface temperatures regularly and updates the analysis throughout the year. It has found that Earth is continuing to experience warmer temperatures than what previously experienced in the 20th century. This is why we have been feeling the odd patterns in our weather recently. Winter seems like spring, and spring seems like summer. Animals such as the polar bears in the Antarctic depend on icy platforms to hunt, but due to the changing climate animals will need to adapt to different approaches to survive.
The average temperature of our planet in 2011 was 0.92 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the mid-20th century baseline. “We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” GISS director James E. Hansen said in a press release. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures.”
The GISS global temperature record began in 1880, a time when the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million. By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million. The number today exceeds 390 parts per million.
The temperature analysis produced by GISS is compiled from weather data of over 1,000 meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea surface temperature and Antarctic research station measurements. This analysis is very close to the collective data produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
However warm the world is getting, the answer to this may only be the introduction of a tax to fight global warming, remembering that each and every one of us can contribute to cut down our own action. It is impossible for any one individual to prevent global warming as we each have a direct impact on the conditions that allow warming to occur. We can pledge to do our part to conserve energy and pollute less. Whether at home, on our commute to work or school, in the office, or at the store, there are things we can do to lessen our contribution to climate change and keep the world's rising temperature in check.
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