Scientists Predict Warmer Decade To Come

Hot as it has been around the world, a relatively cool Pacific Ocean has masked some of the effect of global warming, scientists said yesterday. As the Pacific continues into a warmer phase, temperatures worldwide will respond -- and the scientists predict the 1998 record for hottest worldwide average temperature will be broken. Then broken again. And again. And again.

The relatively cool conditions in the Pacific will break after 2009, and scientists predict half of the subsequent will exceed the mark set in 1998, according to reports today in USA Today, Newsday and elsewhere. Recall also that 2005 was a near match of the 1998 mark, meaning that the world reached that mark despite the cool conditions in the Pacific.

Also, scientists say worldwide warming has contributed to another milestone -- the least amount of floating sea ice in the Arctic ever recorded. Scientists only disagree about whether we've reached that point now -- a full month before the usual peak in open water -- or whether we're on the cusp and will reach it in the coming days. These are grim milestones, and evidence that the sense of urgency many feel about combating global warming is well founded.

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