Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has expressed concern about the continued harassment of climate scientists, warning that such tactics could harm scientific progress. In a statement, the AAAS board of directors say that the association "vigorously opposes attacks on researchers that question their personal and professional integrity or threaten their safety based on displeasure with their scientific conclusions."

Noting that "the sharing of research data is vastly different from unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information and voluminous data that are then used to harass and intimidate scientists," the Board warns that "establishing a practice of aggressive inquiry into the professional histories of scientists whose findings may bear on policy in ways that some find unpalatable could well have a chilling effect on the willingness of scientists to conduct research that intersects with policy-relevant scientific questions." In June, the Australian National University in Canberra moved climate scientists to a secure location after they received a large number of threatening emails and phone calls.

The world is continuing to warm and greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere at an increasing rate, according to the annual State of the Climate report for 2010 from the United States National Climatic Data Center. "There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans," commented Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites at North Carolina State University.

The warmth of 2010 was partly related to the El Niño event that prevailed in the first half of the year. Combined with the underlying long-term warming trend, the El Niño influence resulted in a global temperature that was one of the two highest on record. The Arctic continued to warm at about twice the rate of lower latitudes and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 2.60 parts per million over 2010, greater than the average annual increase during the period 1980-2010.

Ten million people in the Horn of Africa are suffering the effects of a drought that is, in some regions, the worst in 60 years. Lack of rain and rising food prices have led to serious food shortages in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda, with livestock mortality reaching 60 per cent in some parts. "In some areas the situation is close to that of famine," reported Elisabeth Byrs for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

During 2011, around 15,000 Somalis a month have been leaving for Kenya and Uganda. "While conflict has been a fact of life for them for years, it is the drought that has taken them to breaking point. Many have walked for days, are exhausted, in poor health, desperate for food and water, and arriving in a worse condition than usual," according to an OCHA update. OCHA is calling on governments, donors and relief agencies to scale up the emergency response in all affected areas.