Global Temperatures
How are temperatures changing now?
The famous “hockey stick” plot (above) occupies pubic attention regarding global warming and an urgent response to man’s use of combustable carbon fuels. The rates of temperature changes shown for the next century are much higher than in the recent past and much higher than even during glacial retreat.
Rates of Global Temperature change
Climate Change Basics: New England Aquarium
Climate Change indicators in the US--EPA
How is today’s warming different?--NASA
James Hansen: Global Temperature Change
NASA-GISS: Global Temperature Change
Why has temperature stopped rising in last decade?
The recent pause: Issac Held, Nature
Global Temperature is not easy to measure. The graph at left is based on meteorological stations of the world, a logical way to tackle the problem, but with many issues. The number of stations and their locations change and stations are not uniformly distributed. But there seems to be an increasing trend toward stronger positive temperature changes with time. This trend is milder since 2000 and some of the links above discuss why this could be.
NASA GISS
Weather and climate are fundamentally different. So one day, week, month or year may differ markedly from a global average. A very cold early winter in the eastern US (2013-14) doesn’t mean global warming is over. The changes in temperature over different parts of the US for the last century are very different from place to place (see map at right).
