The last three months were the warmest on U.S. record books, and January was the warmest in the 123 years that temperatures for that month have been recorded globally. The warmth stretched from western states like Montana and Oklahoma to the East Coast. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont saw the warmest November-January period on record.
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Professor Mark Meier of the University of Colorado says scientists have seriously underestimated the rise in sea levels that will occur this century. His team came to this conclusion by examining the rate at which glaciers and ice caps are melting because of rising temperatures on Earth.
They say these areas to be retreating far faster than previously thought, and the run-off waters will lift the height of the oceans well above that recently predicted by the UN?s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ?The glacier wastage at the moment is unprecedented,? Meier says. ?In some glaciers, like the South Cascade Glacier in Washington that I have studied for years, we know that the present rate of melting is greater than it ever has been for the last 5,000 years.?
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In a report released February 6, NOAA scientists report the ocean circulation system has been slowing down since the mid-1970?s, causing an increase in ocean surface temperatures along the Equator in the Pacific Ocean and a decrease of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
According to NOAA, ?These circulation changes are linked to the shifts in the climate of western North America, and can affect Pacific fisheries. They may be part of the naturally occurring ocean and atmosphere phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which has a roughly 50-year cycle. But they also could be influenced by greenhouse gases.?
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The World Resources Institute (WRI), A U.S. environmental group, says future Winter Olympics could be in jeopardy because of global warming. Winters will be shorter and warmer, and there may not be enough snow for the competition. The problem will affect Europe as well as north America. The 2006 Winter Olympic Games are due to be held in the Italian city of Turin.
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