2010: The year of climate records

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Cognizant Reflections

The year 2010 has witnessed a few climate records that has mounted evidence of climate change the world over.

• It marked the end of the warmest decade since climate records were kept.
• It has been one of the three warmest years recorded, since 1850.
• It has also been the year with the most extreme climate anomalies. with 3 degrees above normal across Greenland, eastern Canada and the sub-Arctic; record high temperatures in Russia (7.6 degree Celsius above normal); and accelerated glacial melt of world's mountains and Arctic ice sheets. This was supported by rising sea levels and expanding thermal effect of warmer waters, revealed by ocean monitoring and satellite data.

As the extreme weather patterns continued their drumbeat of climate change warnings through the year, "the proof was on the ground for all to see".

While record flooding swamped Pakistan; Russia was engulfed in raging forest fires that destroyed 40 per cent of grain crops and razed entire villages, even threatening Moscow; mudslides swallowed villages in China with a death count of 1400 in a single province (Gansu); cropping patterns changed drastically in many parts and the insurance industry sat up to take stock of the emerging situation. So by the time, the climate negotiators met at Cancun, climate change was no longer a distant risk, but a harsh reality that was already being felt all over the world.

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