Below is an article that came out today on USA Today web site. The one
point I want to make is that we take it for granted how
finely tuned our eco-system truly is. It is so finely balanced that in only
100 years man-made pollution has drastically altered our
weather patterns. From now on every year we will learn more, the hard way,
that our emissions have a profound
effect in our atmosphere. It might be to late for us to reverse the
consequences but the sooner we are aware of it the better.
-- 
Carlos Trevino


2004 is 4th hottest year for world since 1861, U.N. report says
By Traci Watson, USA TODAY

The average temperature for the world this year is the fourth-highest since
reliable data began being kept in 1861, a United Nations
weather agency said Wednesday.
The higher temperature is part of a trend that began in the 1900s and has
intensified in the 21st century. Nine of the 10 hottest
years on record occurred in 1995 or later, according to the U.N.'s World
Meteorological Organization. The last four years were among
the five hottest; 1998 was the hottest on record.

"Temperatures are warming, and they've been warming over the past
century," said Jay Lawrimore, head of the climate-monitoring
branch at National Climatic Data Center. "There's pretty much a
consensus that there will be continued warming over the next
century."

Climate research by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the U.N.
and others shows that such warming will lead to more
intense hurricanes, rising sea levels that will swamp low-lying coastal
areas and heat waves that are longer and more frequent.

More World Meterological Organization findings:

.. Eight named tropical storms formed in the Atlantic Ocean in August, a
record for the most named storms in that month.

.. October 2004 was the warmest October on record.

.. Japan and southern Europe suffered through summer heat waves that
brought record or near-record high temperatures.

Natural disasters in 2004 will cost the insurance industry more than $36
billion worldwide, making 2004 the industry's most
expensive year. Six hurricanes and three tropical storms affected the USA
and accounted for the bulk of those costs.

"Climate scientists anticipate an increase and intensity of extreme
weather events, and this is what the insurance industry is
experiencing," said Klaus Toepfer, director of the U.N. Environment Program.

The planet warmed at a rate of roughly 1 degree per century from 1900 to
1975, Lawrimore said. But the warming has accelerated in
the last 25 to 30 years to 3 degrees per century, he said.

Many scientists have long thought that people are contributing to the
warming seen over the past 100 years. A 2001 report that the
Bush administration requested from the National Academy of Sciences
concluded that much of the warming is probably a result of human
activity in the modern world.

Burning of gasoline, coal and other fossil fuel creates carbon dioxide gas,
which rises into the atmosphere and traps heat.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 12/16/04 10:33:46 PM