July 4, 2013 - Today is Independence Day, not just for Americans, but for the whole world. Egyptians are the people to have most recently shown us what independence means, not once, but over the course of two years, twice, with two almost bloodless revolutions. We thank them for their example. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has just issued a report titled The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes . Data from 139 nations demonstrate that droughts in Australia, East Africa and the Amazon affected the largest numbers of people globally. Rampaging floods in Pakistan, Australia, Africa, India and Eastern Europe were the most frequent extreme weather events. It is interesting that much of the decade's climate was influenced by La Nina, a cooling climate phenomenon that originates in the southeastern Pacific, along the western coast of South America. Significantly, atmospheric concentrations of the most virulent greenhouse gases w...
Understanding the global-warming world: causes and ramifications.