Researchers at Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) have released their annual analysis of global temperatures, noting that Earth’s land and ocean surfaces continue to experience higher temperatures than several decades ago. Nine of the top 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. Last year was another one of them, coming in at 9th warmest since 1880. The map shows temperature anomalies, or changes, by region in 2011.

(c) The Guardian

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The Wall Street Journal has received a dressing down from a large group of leading scientists for promoting retrograde and out-of-date views on climate change. In an opinion piece run by the Journal on Wednesday, nearly 40 scientists, including acknowledged climate change experts, took on the paper for publishing an article disputing the evidence on global warming. The offending article, No Need to Panic About Global Warming, which appeared last week, argued that climate change was a cunning ploy deployed by governments to raise taxes and by non-profit organisations to solicit donations to save the planet. It was signed by 16 scientists who don't subscribe to the conventional wisdom that climate change is happening and is largely man-made - but as Wednesday's letter points out, many of those who signed don't actually work in climate science.

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Environment Minister Phil Hogan pledged to bring in legislation to tackle the issue by the end of next year.

The proposals include a major public consultation on climate policy to conclude by April, with heads of the main points of legislation published by the end of the year.

Friends of the Earth gave the move a broad welcome.

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It has been a hard winter for suburban bird spotters. The nation's house birds have disappeared from towns and cities, leaving gardens devoid of our most familiar feathered visitors. Their absence has triggered a flurry of letters and emails to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from anxious householders disconcerted by the absence of blue tits, greenfinches, chaffinches and house sparrows from suburban Britain. "We have been inundated with letters over the past few weeks from homeowners who have got used to seeing house birds in their gardens over our recent harsh winters but who are perplexed by their absence this year," said Nik Shelton, an RSPB official.

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From coal mines to rice paddies and cooking fires to diesel exhausts, 14 highly cost-effective measures could quickly curb global warming and save millions of lives, while also boosting global food production. That is the striking conclusion of a new study published in Science and the most authoritative look yet at the opportunities offered in tackling methane and black carbon - soot - pollution. The headline findings are striking. The measures would reduce warming by 0.5C by 2050, very useful indeed with the world failing to get to grips with carbon dioxide emissions. And that's only half the tale. They would also avert between 0.7 and 4.7 million premature deaths caused by air pollution every year and bump up crop yields by 30 to 135m tonnes a year.

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This year was the second warmest on record for the UK, the Met Office says. Provisional figures show that only 2006, with an average temperature of 9.73C (49.5F), was warmer than 2011's average temperature of 9.62C (49.3F). This year saw high temperatures for lengthy periods; including the warmest April and spring on record, the second warmest autumn and the warmest October day.

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The world is facing "lock-in" to a high emissions curve: that is the stark warning from the International Energy Agency

Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration If we do not have an international agreement, in place by 2017, the door will be closed forever

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But the special report on managing extreme risks and disasters is more cautious about links between climate change and other types of extreme weather. Its predictions on the human impacts of weather-related disasters are also relatively equivocal.

The summary was produced for policymakers and agreed by government representatives eight days before the start of the UN's annual climate meeting in Durban.

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WILL THE real Phil Hogan please stand up? On June 16th last, responding in the Dáil to questions from Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris on whether climate change legislation was being "put on the long finger", the Minister for the Environment gave a response that left no one in the chamber in any doubt as to where he stood: "Climate change is widely recognised as the most fundamental and far-reaching environmental challenge to humanity, both globally and nationally."

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 THE GOVERNMENT'S shift of policy on climate change has been criticised by the Green Party and environmental bodies but praised by the Irish Farmers' Association and business lobby group Ibec.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the Coalition's policy was "terrible" as it had effectively jettisoned a climate-change Bill. He also said the outcome of Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan's strategic review was to commission another strategic review.
"It sends out a message that we do not need to do anything about this," he said.
IFA president John Bryan welcomed the announcement. Mr Hogan, he said, had rightly recognised the importance of food security and the need for Irish agriculture to produce food in a low-carbon manner.

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He omits to mention the fact that Dublin City Council, in recent years has pursued an aggressive policy of supporting infill developments which have effectively destroyed many of the green environments which he advocates. It is also a fact that Dublin City Council has done nothing to restrict the hard surfacing of front gardens and in at least one instance has spent large sums of public monies on cobble-locking a large number of gardens in a corporation estate in a so-called re-juvenation programme.
Dublin City Council has the prime responsibility to maintain adequate drainage in the urban area. The response of Mr Leahy is merely an attempt to deflect the blame onto someone else. - Yours, etc, LOUIS O'FLAHERTY, Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin 9.

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From page 1 A PROTEST meeting on the seafront at Clontarf yesterday was attended by more than 3,000 people demonstrating their concern about the proposed construction of 9ft flood defences that would obscure views of Dublin Bay along the promenade.
Local residents claim that they were never properly consulted about the proposed earthen embankments and walls, which would extend 3km from Alfie Byrne Road to the Bull Wall.
Apart from obstructing sea views, residents also raised concerns about security risks due to walkways that would be invisible from the road.
"This ludicrous project pales on many fronts - security, tourism, business and sea views. If it were to go ahead it would be an irretrievable eyesore and a blight on the area for generations," said Deirdre Tobin of the Clontarf Residents Association.

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Recent cold winters that brought chaos to the UK and other places in northern Europe may have their roots in the Sun's varying ultraviolet emissions. The latest satellite data shows the UV output is far more changeable than scientists had previously thought. A UK scientific team now shows in Nature Geoscience journal how these changes lead to warmer winters in some places and colder winters in others. The researchers emphasise there is no impact on global warming.

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The Eurobarometer poll found the majority of the public in the EU consider global warming to be one of the world's most serious problems, with one-fifth saying it is the single-most serious problem.

Overall, respondents said climate change was the second-most serious issue facing the world, after poverty.

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The idea was to use a kilometre-long hose to pump water into the atmosphere. Larger versions could pump sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, cooling the Earth. The UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which is funding the project, says the delay was recommended by an independent panel to allow external parties to air their concerns. The decision follows a campaign by environmental lobbyists the ETC Group, based in Ottawa, Canadia.

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The Arctic ozone layer suffers a little damage every winter, but the effect is normally short-lived. "This is a clear step beyond that," says atmospheric chemist Neil Harris of the University of Cambridge. As the measurements came in, ozone researchers began to debate whether the loss could be compared to that seen over the Antarctic. "It's the first time we've even discussed that question," says Harris.

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