" The year 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 is currently estimated at 0.31°C/0.56°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F. The global average temperature in 2008 was slightly lower than that for the previous years of the 21st century due in particular, to the moderate to strong La Nina that developed in the latter half of 2007.
The Arctic Sea ice extent dropped to its second-lowest level during the melt season since satellite measurements began in 1979. Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snow storms, heatwaves and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world.
This preliminary information for 2008 is based on climate data from networks of land-based weather stations, ships and buoys, as well as satellites. The data are continuously collected and disseminated by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of WMO’s 188 Members and several collaborating research institutions. Final updates and figures for 2008 will be published in March 2009 in the annual WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate.
.......... "(Press Release No.835 For use of the information media Not an official record)
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" .....President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Steve Chu, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), to be Secretary of Energy.
Chu, 60, is a Nobel laureate physicist and a Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. He is also one of the nation’s foremost and outspoken advocates for scientific solutions to the twin problems of global warming and the need for carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy. He has called these problems “the greatest challenge facing science” and has rallied many of the world’s top scientists to address it.
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オバマ大統領がエネルギー長官という重要なポストに、気候変動ならびにエネルギー問題で積極的に研究開発を指揮してきたチューさんを据え、さらにEPA(Environmental Protection Agency)のトップにも”The former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and transition team member ”というキャリヤーをもつ環境問題の行政実務のプロ、そして黒人女性のリサ・ジャクソン(Lisa Jackson)さん、さらに気候変動・エネルギー問題を専門に扱う調整役ポストを新設、キャロル・ブラウナー(Carol Browner)さんという女性を据えた。
チューさん以外は初耳のお名前だが、経歴からするとかなり強力な人事だと思います。いずれも、それぞれの分野のプロといえます。