DENMARK: The last decade is the warmest on record

Record ID: 259834

  • Title: DENMARK: The last decade is the warmest on record
  • Date: 9th December 2009
  • Summary: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (DECEMBER 8, 2009) (COP15-TV2 POOL) WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANISATION (WMO) NEWS CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS AT HEAD TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHEL JARRAUD, HEAD OF WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANISATION, SAYING "A lot of things have been said about temperature but the decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest on record." JOURNALIST ASKING A QU
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Denmark
  • Country: Denmark
  • Topics: International Relations,Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA2MCQ41NGZ6XDPGDAIH4LYUM5G
  • Story Text: This year is likely to be the fifth warmest on record and the first decade of this century the hottest since records began, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday (December 8).
    "A lot of things have been said about temperature but the decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest on record," WMO head Michel Jarraud said.
    "We estimate, with what we know, that 2009 is likely to be about the fifth warmest year on record, meaning since 1850," he added, pointing out extreme flashpoints as examples of weather trends due to the warming.
    "There was the worst drought in five decades which affected millions of people in China, a poor monsoon season in India causing severe droughts, massive food shortages associated with a big drought in Kenya," Jarraud told reporters.
    He also highlighted extreme floods, including one which broke a 90-year record in Burkina Faso. This year marked the third lowest summer Arctic sea ice on record, after the two previous years, he added.
    The hottest year record, 1998, coincided with a powerful El Nino, and a new El Nino developed this year.
    The WMO used research from Britain's University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and two U.S. data sources for its temperature analysis.
    In Copenhagen, where representatives from 192 countries have gathered for the biggest climate talks in history, temperatures outside the summit venue are mild.
    An art installation with a bronze skeleton inside a polar bear ice sculpture is already revealing the bones.
    A gardener at the Copenhagen Tivoli tended to blooming flowers.
    "What is so special about this plant, fuchsia, is that it can only grow in a quite mild climate. It will survive some frost but it is frost sensitive. Here it stands protected from the wind and if it doesn't get very cold this winter it will survive," said John Peterson, who has worked at Tivoli for 11 years.
    "It has been mild. We have not had very much frost and that is why they are as beautiful as they are. But if there will be really hard frost they will wither and fall," he added.
    However, the fact that the record for the hottest year has not been broken since 1998 has helped fuel arguments from a small minority of scientists that climate change may not be as severe as feared.
  • Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register