May 2012 temperatures as compared to 1971-2000 base. Graph courtesy of NOAA.
Last month was the second warmest May since record-keeping of global temperatures began 132 years ago. Globally, temperatures were 0.66 degrees Celsius (1.19 Fahrenheit) above the 20th Century Average and were only topped by May 2010, according to preliminary findings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
If you live in the northern hemisphere, it was actually the warmest May on record with temperatures 0.85 degrees Celsius (1.53 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.
La Nina conditions, which generally bring cooler temperatures worldwide, have dissipated this spring causing scientists to predict an uptick in global temperatures. So far, 2012 is the 11th warmest year on record, but could rise even higher if global temperatures remain highly elevated.
Climate change is occurring worldwide due to burning fossil fuels, deforestation, industrial agriculture, and other human activities that result in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Since the early Twentieth Century, temperatures have risen approximately 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44 degrees Fahrenheit) worldwide. Shockingly, the world hasn’t experienced a single year below the 20th Century average since 1975.
Governments around the world have pledged to keep global warming from rising above 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but have done little thus far to achieve that goal. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently warned that unless greenhouse gas emissions were rapidly curtailed the world would warm 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.
“With the current policies in place, the world is perfectly on track to six degrees Celsius increasing the temperature, which is very bad news. And everybody, even school children, know this will have catastrophic implications for all of us,” the chief economist with the International Energy Agency, Faith Birol, recently said.
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