dang, so close to the record..maybe next year....

[Guest guest]

GENEVA, Switzerland — This year has been the second warmest since

1860, extending a

quarter-century pattern of accelerated global warming linked to

greenhouse gas emissions,

United Nations scientists said Tuesday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations agency,

said 1998

remained the hottest year on record, with 2002 surpassing last year

as the next warmest. The

10 warmest years had all occurred since 1987, nine since 1990.

" Clearly for the past 25 or 26 years, the warming is acceleratin....

The rate of

increase is unprecedented in the last 1,000 years, " Kenneth Davidson,

director of WMO's world

climate program, told a news briefing.

A moderate El Niño system warming the tropical Pacific since mid-year

was expected to

last through April, according to the WMO. While this El Niño is

smaller in magnitude

than the 1997-98 event that caused $34 billion in damage, it has

coincided with ''climate

anomalies'' including droughts in Australia and southern Africa, as

well as warmer

conditions across Asia, it added.

WMO scientists were presenting a report on the status of the global

climate in 2002,

based on observations through November from a network of land-based

weather stations,

ships, and buoys. Global surface temperatures have risen six-tenths

of a degree Celsius

since 1900, according to the Geneva-based body.

Scientists say the world needs to slash emissions of carbon dioxide

(CO2) and other

greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere if it is to avoid

disastrous floods,

droughts, and a rise in sea levels in coming decades.

Davidson called greenhouses gases " the major influence affecting the

climate. "

Hong Yan, WMO assistant secretary-general, went further: ''If no very

effective

measures are taken for preventing further release of greenhouse

gases, then the trend will

continue.''

The United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases, has

rejected the Kyoto

treaty that aims to cut emissions from developed countries by 2012 to

5.2 percent below

1990 levels.

The El Niño phenomenon, from the Spanish term for a boy child, is the

warming of the

central and eastern tropical Pacific, the world's largest ocean

basin, every few years.

It can wreak havoc on weather patterns, but no two El Niño events are

identical,

scientists say.

" The drought in Southern Africa appears very strongly linked to El

Niño. The drought in

Ethiopia appears not to be, " said Paul Llanso, head of WMO's climate

data and

monitoring division.

U.S. forecasters said last week that El Nino would bring a milder

winter to the

northern half of the United States while pounding parts of the south

and east with more

storms.

 

Copyright 2002, Reuters

 

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/12/12182002/reu_49197.asp