By Charlene Porter
Staff Writer
Washington — U.S. government scientific agencies are releasing reports in mid-January relating to 2011 weather, long-term climate trends and environmental policies. The reports are independently produced but collectively they provide a wide-angle view on the work the government is doing to understand the environment, and to modify human impact on the planet.
2011 TEMPERATURES AND TRENDS
The year 2011 was the 11th warmest year since record keeping began in 1880, according to a year-end summary of national and global weather patterns from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It was the 35th consecutive year that the annual global combined land and ocean surface temperatures were above average. NOAA’s National Climate Data Center reported that the 20th century average global temperature was 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 Celsius), and the 2011 average was 0.9 degrees F (0.5 C) warmer than that.
Including 2011, all 11 years of the 21st century rank among the 13 warmest in 132 years of records. One year in the 20th century, 1998, had a warmer average than 2011.
The global average for land surface temperature was almost 1.5 degrees F (0.8 C) above the 20th century average of 47.3 F (8.5 C), and ranked as the eighth warmest on record in the comparisons of land-only temperatures.
The La Niña weather pattern — marked by cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific — visited twice in 2011, first in the early months of the year, then returning in October and remaining in place through the end of the year. The weather system influenced precipitation, making 2011 the second wettest year over land on record. At the same time, La Niña also influenced the severe drought in the Horn of Africa and the wettest year on record for Australia.
The annual report also found that 2011 was a year of extremes resulting in 14 weather events in the United States alone that caused damages of $1 billion or more.
The top three weather events of 2011, according to NOAA, were: 1) drought in East Africa, 2) flooding in Thailand and 3) flooding in Australia.
CLIMATE CHANGE, FISH, WILDLIFE AND PLANTS
Analysis of long-term trends in weather contributes to scientific projections about climate change and the warming of the planet. While those projections are still discredited by some, they are accepted by the scientific mainstream and are influencing government policies.
The Obama administration January 19 released the first draft of a strategy that would help agencies reduce the impact of climate change on wildlife, plants, ecosystems and people. The National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is a proposal for unified action to safeguard these life forms in a changing world, and to protect the important benefits and resources the natural world provides the country and its people.
“The impacts of climate change are already here, and those who manage our landscapes are already dealing with them,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes.
The natural world is a source of jobs, food, clean water and air, recreation, building materials and storm protection. The plan aims to help people prepare for impact on the resources and the various activities associated with them.
The U.S. Congress called for development of this wide-ranging strategy in 2010. More than 100 researchers and managers, representing federal, state and local conservation agencies, worked to draft the strategy. The plan describes projected impacts and suggests strategies and actions that might reduce vulnerabilities and increase the resilience of life forms and ecosystems as the climate changes.
ACID RAIN ABATES
Air quality, water quality and human health are improving because electric power plants have reduced emissions that cause acid rain.
A report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released January 19 tracks the improvement of conditions since an acid rain program was put in place in 1990. It documents substantial reductions in sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted by power plants using coal, gas and oil, proven to be primary causes of acid rain. In 2009, emissions of SO2 and NOx were documented at one-third the levels of 1990.
“The principal message of this report is that the Acid Rain Program has worked,” said Doug Burns, lead author of the report and a USGS hydrologist.
Despite that positive conclusion, the report also shows that some lakes, especially those downwind of emissions-producing power plants, are still showered by rains with an acidic content high enough to do harm. But the study’s authors are projecting that persistently reduced emissions will lead to cleaner waters.
“We have every reason to believe that recovery will continue with further decreases in emissions, which is why further emission reductions would be beneficial,” Burns said.
Acid rain occurs when SO2 and NOx emissions react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen and oxidants to create acidic compounds that may ride the winds for hundreds of miles before settling down to pollute lakes, streams and coastal waters, or to damage human health.
