ENVIRONMENT: Cold in the Pacific Not Enough to Cool Warming Trend

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 19 2000 (IPS) - The temperature at the earth’s surface remained high this year, despite the blankets of cold applied by the meteorological phenomenon known as La Niña, which remained active in the Pacific Ocean.

As the year ends, the average annual temperature is likely to be 0.32 degrees Celsius higher than the average for the 1961-1990 base period. This dynamic is the same as was recorded in 1999, and places the year 2000 as the fifth hottest of the last 140 years.

As such, the report on the global climate in 2000, presented Tuesday by the secretary-general of the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Godwin Obasi, confirms that the global warming trend continues.

“The year 2000 was much like those of the 1990s. Some areas of the globe experienced extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme rainfall and extreme drought, while many others experienced near normal conditions,” says the United Nations weather agency, “but when averaged together, the global climate continues to be warmer than normal.”

The warmest years since instrument-measured temperatures have been recorded were, in descending order, 1998, 1997, 1995 and 1990. The ten hottest all occurred after 1983, with eight of them since 1990. The El Niño phenomenon warmed the Pacific in 1998, making it the hottest since 1860.

“As a new century begins, the global mean temperature is 0.6 degrees Celsius above that at the start of the twentieth century,” according to the WMO.

Obasi, a Nigerian meteorologist, told the media Tuesday that the results of the WMO report are consistent with global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree is caused by heat-trapping emissions of so-called greenhouse gases, which are produced by the combustion of oil, petrol, coal and other, mostly carbon-based chemicals.

International negotiators in The Hague failed in November to hammer out a legally binding pact stipulating in specific terms how nations would reduce these emissions, as called for by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Michael Harrison, the acting director of the World Climate Programme at the WMO, pointed out that the year 2000 will be the 22nd consecutive year in which the average earth surface temperature is higher than the average for the 1961-1990 period.

In most areas of the Northern Hemisphere, temperatures recorded at the meteorological stations surpassed the average high.

But eastern areas of the tropical Pacific saw cooler temperatures than normal throughout most of the year, due to the fact that La Niña was very strong in early 2000, languishing in July and August, but recovering force as the new year approaches.

Other tropical zones and the non-tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere went through periods of different anomalies, though with a general tendency towards warming.

This year registered 15 hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean, raising the annual average of such phenomena there to 10. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, there were 22 major storms, below the annual average of 28.

Several of the storms caused torrential rains, flooding and extensive damage. Hurricanes Keith and Gordon inflicted destruction in Central America and tropical storm Leslie unleashed unprecedented precipitation in the US state of Florida.

In the Pacific, typhoon Saomai thrashed parts of Japan with rains that beat all records. Another typhoon, dubbed Prapiroon, hit the coasts of the Korean peninsula dumping torrential rains for 30 hours, uninterrupted.

Intense cyclones formed in the Gulf of Bengal and went on to strike the southern portion of the Indian peninsula, where they caused serious losses.

But the most devastating cyclones were Eline, Gloria and Hudah, which battered Madagascar, Mozambique and areas of southern Africa, producing severe flooding and claiming human lives.

India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam suffered considerable losses due to floods from torrential rains. England and Whales suffered the rainiest autumn since measurements began 235 years ago.

There were also severe droughts, such as the ones that hit southeast Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia simultaneously. In June and July, record high temperatures were set in southern Europe, particularly in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria.

For the third consecutive year, rains in the Horn of Africa were below average. Tens of thousands of people have suffered the consequences of the prolonged droughts in Ethiopia and in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti.