| Scientists have been saying that IF three is | | | | scientists. The climate panel, organized by |
| any validity to a 2012 galactic plane | | | | the United Nations, released four major |
| crossing or magnetic pole reversal, it would | | | | reports in 2007 saying man-made global |
| begin showing up more increasingly in weired | | | | warming was incontrovertible and an urgent |
| weather patterns. I'd have to say that the | | | | threat to millions of lives. Through the |
| year 2007 was verification that something is | | | | first 10 months, it was the hottest year |
| changing. Did we see tremors of the coming | | | | recorded on land and the third hottest when |
| planetary earthquake that will shake our | | | | ocean temperatures are included. |
| world immeasurably in 2007? | | | | |
| | | | Smashing records was common, especially in |
| Let's look at some statistics- maybe | | | | August. At U.S. weather stations, more than |
| evidence! | | | | 8,000 new heat records were set or tied for |
| | | | specific August dates. |
| 1-January was the warmest first month on | | | | |
| record worldwide-1.53 degrees above normal. | | | | More remarkably that same month, more than |
| It was the first time since record-keeping | | | | 100 all-time temperature records were tied or |
| began in 1880 that the globe's average | | | | broken-regardless of the date-either for the |
| temperature has been so far above the norm | | | | highest reading or the warmest low |
| for any month of the year. | | | | temperature at night. By comparison only 14 |
| | | | all-time low temperatures were set or tied |
| 2-As 2007 drew to a close, it was also | | | | all year long, as of early December, |
| shaping up to be the hottest year on record | | | | according to records kept by the National |
| in the Northern Hemisphere. U.S. weather | | | | Climatic Data Center. More than 60 percent of |
| stations broke or tied 263 all-time high | | | | the United States was either abnormally dry |
| temperature records, according to an | | | | or suffering from drought at one point in |
| Associated Press analysis of U.S. weather | | | | August. |
| data. England had the warmest April in 348 | | | | |
| years of record-keeping there, shattering the | | | | More coincidences? |
| record set in 1865 by more than 1.1 degrees | | | | |
| Fahrenheit. | | | | In November, Atlanta's main water source, |
| | | | Lake Lanier, shrank to an all-time low. Lake |
| 3-There were other weird weather events as | | | | Okeechobee, crucial to south Florida, hit its |
| well. A tornado struck New York City in | | | | lowest level in recorded history in May, |
| August, inspiring the tabloid headline: "This | | | | exposing muck and debris not seen for |
| ain't Kansas!" In the Middle East, an equally | | | | decades. Lake Superior, the biggest and |
| rare cyclone spun up in June, hitting Oman | | | | deepest of the Great Lakes, dropped to its |
| and Iran. Major U.S. lakes shrank; Atlanta | | | | lowest August and September levels in |
| had to worry about its drinking water supply. | | | | history. Los Angeles hit its driest year on |
| South Africa got its first significant | | | | record. Lakes fed by the Colorado River and |
| snowfall in 25 years. And on Reunion Island, | | | | which help supply water for more than 20 |
| 400 miles east of Africa, nearly 155 inches | | | | million Westerners, were only half full. |
| of rain fell in three days-a world record for | | | | |
| the most rain in 72 hours. | | | | More coincidences? |
| | | | |
| Strictly coincidences? | | | | Australia, already a dry continent, suffered |
| | | | its worst drought in a century, making global |
| Individual weather extremes can't be | | | | warming an election issue. On the other |
| attributed to global warming; however, "it's | | | | extreme, record rains fell in China, England |
| the run of them and the different locations" | | | | and Wales. Minnesota got the worst of |
| that have the mark of man-made climate | | | | everything: a devastating June and July |
| change, said top European climate expert Phil | | | | drought followed by record August rainfall. |
| Jones, director of the climate research unit | | | | In one March day, Southern California got |
| at the University of East Anglia in England. | | | | torrential downpours, hail, snow and fierce |
| | | | winds. Then in the fall came devastating |
| Worst of all-at least according to climate | | | | fires driven by Santa Ana winds. |
| scientists-the Arctic, which serves as the | | | | |
| world's refrigerator, dramatically warmed in | | | | And yet none of those events worried |
| 2007, shattering records for the amount of | | | | scientists as much as what was going on in |
| melting ice. | | | | the Arctic in the summer. Sea ice melted not |
| | | | just to record levels, but far beyond the |
| Thus, 2007 seemed to be the year that climate | | | | previous melt record. The Northwest Passage |
| change shook the thermometers, and those who | | | | was the most navigable it had been in modern |
| warned that it was beginning to happen were | | | | times. Russia planted a flag on the seabed |
| suddenly honored. | | | | under the North Pole, claiming sovereignty. |
| | | | The ice sheets that cover a portion of |
| Former Vice President Al Gore's documentary | | | | Greenland retreated to an all- time low and |
| "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar and he | | | | permafrost in Alaska warmed to record levels. |
| shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the | | | | |
| Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an | | | | Coincidences, 2012 tremors, or? |
| international group of thousands of | | | | |