January 12, 2011

comment on the announcement by NOAA that 2010 tied with 2005 as warmest year on Earth

Comment on the announcement by the National Climatic Data Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on Earth since their records began in 1880.

Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“These new figures show unequivocally that the Earth is warming and its temperature is at record levels. According to these figures, 9 of the 10 warmest years since records began in the 19th century have all occurred since 2000. So this year is the warmest year and in 2010 measurements also showed that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had reached 390 parts per million, its highest level for at least 800,000 years and almost 40 per cent higher than the level before the start of the Industrial Revolution when humans started to burn fossil fuels in increasing amounts. The evidence is overwhelming that human activities are driving climate change, and the public should not be fooled by those who seek to delay and prevent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by claiming that the Earth is cooling or that carbon dioxide does not cause warming.”