This is just a coincidence, right?
If you live from the Midwest to the Northeast and thought your jacket or heavy coat usage was less often than usual this November, you are right. The month will close out with a number of cities recording a top ten warmest November.
Of course, one month in one half of the United States doesn't prove anything about the long-term climate -- but it does remind one that 2010 was one of the planet's hottest years on record, and that's a continuation of a trend that's been going on for a while. Meanwhile, there's this news to digest, or maybe inhale:
Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery.
Emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, according to an analysis released Sunday by the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists tracking the numbers. Scientists with the group said the increase, a half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the air, was almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution, and the largest percentage increase since 2003.
The increase solidified a trend of ever-rising emissions that scientists fear will make it difficult, if not impossible, to forestall severe climate change in coming decades.
But it's OK, people. I saw a video on the news the other day, and apparently our future president Newt Gingrich has been working closely with Nancy Pelosi on a plan to deal with this, and...what?
Scratch that. We're doomed.