The World Meteorlogical Organization annual statement of Status of Global Climate said that 2011 was the 11th warmest since record keeping began in 1850. And it was the warmest year on record with a La Nina, which has a cooling influence.
Precipitation extremes, many of them associated with one of the strongest La Niña events of the last 60 years, had major impacts on the world. Significant flooding occurred on all continents, whilst major droughts affected parts of east Africa and North America. Arctic sea ice extent fell to near record-low levels. Global tropical cyclone activity was below average, but the United States had one of its most destructive tornado seasons on record.
In addition, WMO also announced preliminary findings of the soon to be released Decadal Global Climate Summary, showing that climate change accelerated in 2001-2010, which was the warmest decade ever recorded in all continents of the globe.
The rate of increase since 1971 has been “remarkable” according to the preliminary assessment. Atmospheric and oceanic phenomena such as La Niña events had a temporary cooling influence in some years but did not halt the overriding warming trend.
The “dramatic and continuing sea ice decline in the Arctic” was one of the most prominent features of the changing state of the climate during the decade [..]
The global temperature increase rate has been “remarkable” during the previous four decades, according to the preliminary summary. The global temperature has increased since 1971 at an average estimated rate of 0.166°C per decade compared to the average rate of 0.06 °C per decade computed over the full period 1881-2010.
Extreme Events
Numerous weather and climate extremes affected almost every part of the globe with flooding, droughts, cyclones, heat waves, and cold waves. Two exceptional heat waves hit Europe and Russia during summer 2003 and 2010 respectively with disastrous impacts and thousands of deaths and outbreaks of prolonged bush fires.
Sea Ice
The decline in the Arctic sea-ice, observed since the end of the 1960s, continued throughout 2001-2010. A historical low Arctic sea-ice extent at the melting period in September was recorded in 2007.
We are now living in the "Age of Consequences". The consequences of our glutton consumption of fossil fuels.
The consensus among scientists seems to be shifting as it's realized that there will be no magic technological bullet to get us out of this self-imposed crisis. This coming from Tom Murphy, the astrophysicist, of the popular energy blog Do The Math
The very simple answer staring us in the face, yet somehow unthinkable, is to consume far fewer resources and aim to reduce population. Hopefully we can do this in a more controlled way than nature may enforce if we ignore the myriad warnings. This "solution" will no doubt offend many, but just because we want to continue growth does not mean we can. We need to take control of our destiny, and that starts with us as individuals. Decide to reduce; mentally abandon the growth paradigm.
I have been writing about this for four years. We are the ones who will have to make changes in our consumption. Some will be legislated but we can't wait for that to happen we need to reduce consumption in our own lives. The
most effective individual action we can take is to eliminate/reduce our meat consumption. We need to walk, ride our bikes and take public transport and reduce our air travel.
Since I've become concerned about climate change I have made changes to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible. It's easy to sink into despair with all this frightening news and feel overwhelmed but I can attest that it's empowering to be a part of the solution.