February 28, 2007
GCRIO Program Overview
Our extensive collection of documents.
Archives of the
Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999
FROM VOLUME 11, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1998
Streak of Warm Months Cited in Debate
President Al Gore and several scientists presented a press conference in
mid-July [reported by R. Monastersky in Science News (4) 52-53
(July 25, 1998) and available at
to announce that the global average surface temperature for June was the
highest for that month since 1880 when records started being kept. In
fact, they pointed out, each month this year has posted global temperature
records. The purpose of the conference was to urge Congress to adopt
policies to curb emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with the
treaty adopted last December in Kyoto, Japan. Deliberations of the treaty
are currently stalled in committee in the Senate.
Tom Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, noted that El
Niño helped warm the Earth during the past year but that conditions
in the tropical west Pacific Ocean cooled off significantly in June and
are currently in a La Niña, which is cooling the surface of the
Pacific Ocean and the air above it. Karl was quoted as saying, Theres
absolutely no question. Clearly, we have very compelling evidence to
suggest that global temperatures are indeed warming.
In addition to setting temperature records, the months of April, May,
and June were the driest on record for Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, and
Texas. Karl said that these conditions provide a taste of what will
happen more frequently as the climate warms. According to computer
models, events that would be expected to occur every thousand years in a
stable climate would occur every three years in a greenhouse climate.
Moreover, more frequent weather extremes, such as droughts and heavy
rainfall, not only can be expected but are already occurring, according to
analyses of historical weather records.
Other climatologists, like George H. Taylor, the state climatologist of
Oregon, dispute some of the numbers. I think many of the temperature
records are questionable, says Taylor. The quality of data in
many foreign countries is rather poor, and data are sparse in many areas
of the world. Others criticize the Kyoto Protocol because, they say,
the treaty allows developing nations to continue to emit greenhouse gases
without some of the restrictions placed on industrialized nations and
because it might slow the U.S. economy.
Guide to Publishers
Index of Abbreviations