Global Warming Continues to Escalate

A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study shows 2012 was one the hottest years on record. The study entitled 2012 State of the Climate was created with data by 384 scientists from 54 countries.

Acting NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan, “Many of the events that made 2012 such an interesting year are part of the long-term trends we see in a changing and varying climate—carbon levels are climbing, sea levels are rising, Arctic sea ice is melting, and our planet as a whole is becoming a warmer place."

It doesn't take a scientific report to notice the increase in hot temperatures. Just last month, the U.S. experienced dangerously high temperatures throughout the country resulting in one death. A 78-year-old Kentucky Alzheimer's patient died of heat exhaustion after reportedly wandering away from his home.

If you don't have much time to read the whole report (which you probably don't) then checkout these highlights that may or may not shock you:

1. 2012 was The United States' (and Argentina's) warmest year on record.

No surprise here. Last year was brutal with record highs in the triple digits in many parts of the country. I lived next to my A/C last summer. We all did.

2. Sea levels reached a record high.

Don't believe it? With the sea rising a foot each decade, South Florida is "toast" by century's end according to Tom Gustafson, a former Florida speaker of the House and a climate-change-policy advocate. That's if a hurricane doesn't sweep it away before then.

3. Greenhouse gases are climbing.

The use of greenhouse gases causing our planet to warm continues to rise. Though there was a "slight decline in manmade emissions associated with the global economic downturn, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached a record high."