According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the decade of 2000-09 was the warmest on record worldwide; the previous warmest decade was the 1990s.

Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting.

The Obama administration lofted a proposal to establish within NOAA – an arm of the Department of Commerce - a new Climate Service to collect and analyze climatic data being gathered worldwide. It would be, promises the administration, the definitive source for climate information.

NOAA Administrator, Dr Jane Lubchenco, in a NY Times interview stated, ''Climate change is real, it's happening now.'' She said climate information is vital to the wind power industry, coastal community planning, fishermen and fishery managers, farmers and public health officials.

Lubchenco further stated, "We envision this climate portal as the first step toward making the wealth of climate information at NOAA available in one easy-to-use resource."

Creation of the Climate Service requires a series of steps, including layers of Congressional Committee approval.

Congress would be saddled with the responsibility of regulating safeguards to the highest standards of scientific integrity and transparency - avoiding the type of controversies that have begged the question about the competency and scientific impartiality of much climate research.

An interesting speculation is that if the George W. Bush administration proposed the service, the suspicion would have been that it was to give a veneer of science to the administration's distaste for environmental regulation.

Conversely, others will say that the Obama administration wants similar cover for a greenhouse-gas bill with a cap-and-trade program for polluters.

Conservative media outlets have used recent winter storms throughout the east as an excuse to forward attacks against former Vice President Al Gore and climate science. Regardless, winter snow on the east coast of the United States does not disprove the scientific consensus that global warming is real.

While Washington DC is being pummeled by what the Washing Times referred to as “Snowmageddon”, Rio de Janeiro is reportedly suffering through a "historic" heat wave.

Additionally, according to numerous news outlets, Vancouver, British Columbia, the location of the 2010 Winter Olympics has been hit by unseasonably warm weather, causing a massive effort to move snow to freestyle skiing events sites.

So while some are snowing on the global warming parade, it is necessary to distinguish between weather and climate. A short-term condition sometimes can run counter to a long-term trend.

It’s not utterly misanthropic to see the effects of climate change on melting polar ice caps, raised sea levels, threatened crops and changing weather patterns.

A nonpartisan research agency is the clear path toward generating future solutions.



Armand Nardi is the publisher of the Gainesville Daily Register. He can be contacted at: anardi@ntin.net