This article originally published in The Charleston Gazette

September 15, 2006

It's hotter than usual, analysis shows

By Bob Schwarz
Staff writer

It’s getting hot here.

It’s getting hot everywhere.

Average temperatures in the United States were higher from 2000 to 2005 than they were in the prior 30 years. And the first six months of 2006 were a lot warmer than the 2000-2005 period, says the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which analyzed federal government data collected at 255 government weather stations.

In the continental United States, the first seven months of 2006 were the warmest January-July of any year on record, according to the government’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In 36 states, the first seven months of 2006 ranked among the 10 warmest years since record-keeping began in 1895.

In Charleston and Huntington between 2000 and 2005, the average temperature was 1.2 degrees above normal. During the first six months of 2006, the average temperature in Charleston was 2.5 degrees above normal and in Huntington, it was 2.7 degrees warmer.

It has been hotter than normal in Beckley and Elkins too, especially so the first six months of this year.

“Global warming is happening, and West Virginia is feeling the heat,” said Rose Garr, the Public Interest Research Group’s mid-Atlantic field organizer. “Two or three degrees may not seem like much, but just like in people, a small, relatively rapid temperature rise can have serious consequences.”

Nationally, between 2000 and 2005, the average temperature was above normal at 95 percent of locations, indicating widespread warming, and nighttime lows were above normal at 92 percent of places.

Numerous studies indicate that sea levels are rising, ice and snowpack are shrinking, and hurricanes are becoming more powerful, said the Public Interest Research Group’s Emily Figdor, a national spokeswoman.

“Scientists are waving red flags that global warming is a matter of life and death for humanity,” said Vivian Stockman, project coordinator for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “We have about 10 years until we reach a tipping point where we could face catastrophic changes in weather.”

As the polar ice caps melt and the oceans rise, there will be millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of climate refugees, Stockman said. “All of us will pay for disaster recovery and some of us may not recover from the disasters.”

Summer 2006 was the second warmest June-to-August period in the continental United States since records began in 1895, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The January-to-August period was the warmest on record for the continental U.S.

This was the second warmest summer on record, averaging 74.5 degrees Fahrenheit, topped only by the 74.7 degrees set in 1936 during the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression. Eight of the past 10 summers have been warmer than average.

Global warming is no longer some distant problem that we’re leaving for our grandchildren, Stockman said. “This will affect you and your children.”

Proposals to build new refineries in West Virginia that would process coal into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum will make matters worse, Stockman said. “From start to finish, production to combustion, the coal-to-liquid fuel process produces nearly double the greenhouse gases of an equal amount of oil. That’s unacceptable if we are to ... [maintain] a habitable planet for our kids,” added Stockman.

This summer Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., introduced the Safe Climate Act (H.R. 5642), which would harness clean energy solutions to reduce U.S. global warming emissions by about 15 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., introduced a similar bill, called the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 3698), in July.

To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, use e-mail or call 348-1249.