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NASA explains how Europe can be so cold amidst the hottest November and hottest year on record

How did we get record-breaking November warmth in the middle of a strong La Ni±a that would normally cool global temperatures (as it did in the fall of 1998, see lower right figure, blue line)?  Is the answer the Arctic sea ice death spiral 2010?  And is the loss of Arctic sea ice also responsible for the frigid European temperatures?

NASA’s James Hansen, Reto Ruedy, Makiko Sato and Ken Lo answer these questions in “2010 “” Global Temperature and Europe’s Frigid Air,” which I repost below with the original figures:

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December 12 energy and climate news: Israeli study says worst-ever forest fire a sign of climate change; Chu announces $21 Million in green building assistance; the worlds best green technology?

Israeli forest fire sign of climate change: study

Israel’s worst-ever forest fire earlier this month confirms predictions on the impact of global warming in the Mediterranean basin, according to one of Israel’s leading climate experts.

“The fire disaster in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa is a taste of the future,” Guy Pe’er, co-author of Israel’s National Report on Climate Change, said on Wednesday.

Nearly a decade ago, Pe’er and other scientists warned that warming would create conditions such as heat waves, decreased and delayed rainfall, leading to a higher risk of intense forest fires.

The recent four-day blaze, which destroyed some five million trees across 12,000 acres (4,800 hectares), arose from these very conditions, he said.
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Appeals Court gives green light to EPA carbon pollution standards, rejects claims of polluters and climate-science deniers

Big news [Friday] from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, which just gave the green light to implementing EPA’s first carbon pollution standards in January.  The court flatly rejected the efforts by America’s biggest carbon polluters and the State of Texas to block all of EPA’s efforts to begin curbing the dangerous pollution that causes global warming under the nation’s clean air laws.

NRDC’s David Doniger has the story in this re-post:

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