The year 2011 was another heat record in the Arctic. Climate change is therefore in no way retreating.
The image on the right clearly shows the annual temperature rising. Click to enlarge the image.
NASA has released data on the temperatures yeasterday. According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the annual mean surface temperature (land and air) for the region north of 64°N (the Arctic Circle is at 66° 33'N) in 2011 was 2.28 degrees Celcius above that which characterized the 1951-1980 period.
Temperatures in the region have been rising rapidly since the late 1970s and have not dropped below the long term mean since 1992, for nearly 20 years.
This year's annual mean temperature broke the record that was just set in 2010, when the temperature was 2.11oC above 1951-1980 levels.
The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.
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