Tiempo Climate Newswatch

2005 has taken the record for the warmest year world-wide, according to the latest analysis from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NASA). "It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern meteorological records," said Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. "Using indirect measurements that go back farther, I think it's even fair to say that it's the warmest in the last several thousand years."

The American results differ from those issued recently by a British team from the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, and the Exeter-based Hadley Centre. The provisional estimate from the British scientists places 2005 as the second-warmest year, some way behind 1998. The difference is due to the handling of the Arctic data. The available evidence suggests was that this region remarkably warm during 2005. "We believe that the remarkable Arctic warmth of 2005 is real, and the inclusion of estimated Arctic temperatures is the primary reason for our rank of 2005 as the warmest year," say the NASA researchers. The British team takes a more conservative approach in extrapolating over data-sparse regions.

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• ENS
• MSNBC
• Reuters

• Press release, NASA
• 2005 technical summary, NASA

Australian researchers have shown that sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades. Analysis of historic records of sea level reveals a trend of 1.44mm a year over the period since 1870, but the rate has increased to 1.75mm per year during the period since 1950. Projecting forward to the year 2100 suggests that global sea level could rise by 28 to 34cm this century.

John Church of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, co-author of the study, warns that the future rise in sea level "means there will be increased flooding of low-lying areas when there are storm surges. It means increased coastal erosion on sandy beaches; we're going to see increased flooding on island nations."

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• BBC

• Mongabay

The periodic warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean as El Niño waxes and wanes is affecting the reproduction of southern right whales, according to a long-term study. "The whales produce fewer calves than expected in years when El Niño makes waters warmer in the western South Atlantic off Antarctica," reports Vicky Rowntree from the University of Utah. "The warmer water causes a reduction in the abundance of krill, which are shrimp-like crustaceans eaten by large whales and other predators."

The population of southern right whales has been severely depleted by commercial whaling over past centuries, but a recovery has begun in recent decades. The researchers are concerned that a consistent trend in temperature of the Southern Ocean, as predicted to accompany global warming, could threaten this recovery. The average temperature of the ocean off the Antarctic Peninsula rose by just over one degree Celsius during the second half of the 20th century.

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• ENS

• Science Daily