Planet Hot

Good story today in USA Today... Study: Earth Is Hottest Now In 2000 Years; humans responsible for much of the warming. Highlights from the report, which was commissioned by Congress:

- global warming produced about half of the extra hurricane-fueled warmth in the North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were only a minor factor

- average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century. (And that's only the average. Some places like Greenland exceed that to a dangerous degree.)

- The National Academy scientists concluded that the Mann-Bradley-Hughes research from the late 1990s (which produced the famously contested "hockey-stick" graph) was "likely" to be true.

-"recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia" (though relatively warm conditions persisted around the year 1000, followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1500 to 1850)

And finally, and perhaps most importantly...

- The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

Yes Virginia, that means even smart Republicans can acknowledge climate change. Refreshing.

Full report at National Academy of Sciences.

Oh, and that's Nicole Marie Lenz feeling the heat. (NSFW gallery here.)