Study: '06 Temperature Increases Support Warming Theory
Republican Skeptic Calls Climate Change A "Fad"
Last updated Tuesday, July 24, 2007 7:53 PM CDT in News
By John Lyon
THE MORNING NEWS
LITTLE ROCK -- Above-normal temperatures recorded last year in Arkansas and across the nation are evidence of global warming, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The average mean temperature recorded at Fort Smith Regional Airport in 2006 was 64.1 degrees, or 2.9 degrees above the 30-year norm of 61.2 degrees at that location, according to the study by U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group with offices in Boston and Washington.
At Little Rock National Airport, the average mean temperature last year was 64.5 degrees, or 2.4 degrees above normal for that location.
The study drew upon data from 255 weather stations in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to compare recent temperatures with "normal" temperatures, or average temperatures for the 30 years spanning 1971-2000.
Nationally, 2006 was the second-warmest year on record and the summer of 2006 was the second-warmest summer on record for the 48 contiguous states, according to the study.
The average temperature last year was at least 0.5 percent above normal at 87 percent of the locations studied. The same was true for average temperatures over the period of 2000-06.
"This unseasonably warm weather is part of a long-term trend toward rising temperatures and extreme weather events resulting from global warming," the creators of the study concluded.
"This study should prove once again that global warming is happening in the U.S. and here in Arkansas," said Glen Hooks, spokesman for the Sierra Club of Arkansas.
Hooks said on Tuesday the temperature changes cited in the study may not seem like much, but in terms of the global climate, a change of a few degrees is significant.
"You kick over one domino here in the complex web of life, when you're talking about the environment, and you can really cause some serious changes. If we don't reverse those changes, we're really going to see some significant difference," he said.
This spring, the Legislature enacted a bill to create a state Global Warming Commission. The 21-member commission, most of whose members have yet to be appointed, will study the issue of climate change and recommend actions for the state to take.
State Rep. Roy Ragland, R-Marshall, abstained when the legislation came up for a vote in the House. Ragland said Tuesday he was "not too shook up" when told of the study by U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
"Back in 1975, the same community of scientists and so on was saying we were about to experience climate change in the opposite direction," Ragland said. "We were about to experience a terrific cooling of the Earth. I think it's kind of like hula hoops and miniskirts -- it's a fad."
The climate study comes during what so far has been an unseasonably cool summer for Arkansas. The temperature in Fort Smith so far this month has been 2.1 degrees below normal, according to the National Weather Service.
Hooks said it is long-term trends, not fluctuations from month to month, that show the effects of climate change.
"If you look at the overall trend, you see an unmistakable pattern of increase," he said. "The past 35 years have all been among the warmest on record for the U.S., and if you want to look at it worldwise, 11 of the last 12 years rank among the warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature."
Ragland said global warming has occurred throughout the history of the Earth.
"'Does that prove that man's causing it?' would be my question, and I don't think so," he said.
The National Resources Defense Council last week released the results of a survey indicating that nearly 70 percent of voters in Arkansas' 4th Congressional District consider global warming a "serious problem."
The 4th District was the only Arkansas congressional district surveyed by the council.
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cybertech wrote on Jul 24, 2007 10:55 PM:
pgjohnw wrote on Jul 25, 2007 8:53 AM:
lonestar60 wrote on Jul 26, 2007 7:02 AM:
Not already registered?
cybertech wrote on Jul 24, 2007 10:46 PM: