Explore Our Planet

Every month the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has a look at the month before and publishes a report from a historical perspective.

July 2007 brought record and near-record warmth to the western United States, while much of the eastern and southern U.S. experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Below-average rainfall, combined with scorching temperatures, helped put 46 percent of the contiguous U.S. in some stage of drought by the end of July.

The global average temperature was the seventh warmest on record for July, and the presence of cooler-than-average waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific reflected the possible development of a La Niña episode.

The Climate Monitoring website acts as a good one-stop website for all kind of data (snow, tornadoes, climate extremes for Las Vegas, global surface temperature anomalies and more.

Up to 80 different fires claimed already more than 50 lives in Greece, Europe. Yesterday Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis declared a nationwide state of emergency, mobilizing all resources.

International help started arriving today, with planes or firemen from France, Italy, and Cyprus and more help expected from Serbia, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Since June more than 3,000 fires have razed thousands of hectares of forests and scrubland across the country - nearly triple last year’s total - according to officials.

The smoke ranges from Greece to Tripolis, Lybia. Photo captured by Daily Terra - 2007-08-25.

1 liter gasoline/petrol - burnt in a car - emitts about 2.3 kilogramm carbon dioxyde. Diesel even more: 2.6 kg CO2. Only 10 per cent of the fuels energy are effectively used to transport you. The rest is wasted for moving iron , tires and oil.

Of course cars must be safe, but in no car you have a chance to survive a crash with 120kph. So why is it fun to drive with death speed? However if you really need your own car and car sharing is not an option, check out climate friendly cars.

ExploreOurPla.net mirrors from now the car fuel database of the Vehicle Certification Agency based in UK. 3,300 models from Alfa Romeo to Volvo all with CO2 emissions per kilometer.

The winner is the Prius build by Toyota with its hybrid engine and 104 g/km CO2. To compare: the 2001 Roadster L144 from Lamborghini emitts 520 g same distance.

The famous mySql database driving this site will be upgraded in the next days to version 5 - same with PHP. There may be some hick-ups. Please be patient - it is worth to wait for the geo extensions and a performance boost.

Just in case you are wondering servana.de has a reasonable pricelist, confixx as admin interface, awstats for analyzing traffic, a friendy support and this major update for free.

The new website works as a one stop to the summary for policy makers and full reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You’ll find material for the youth and kids plus a calendar of upcoming events.

Opening paragraphs of the address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the General Assembly thematic debate on climate change, in New York, 31 July:

Madam President, Excellencies, Dear Delegates,

Let me thank the President of the General Assembly, Her Excellency Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for convening this timely and topical debate.

We meet at a time when climate change - long on the international agenda - is finally receiving the very highest attention that it merits. We have all heard a lot about the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They have unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity.

The effects of these changes are already grave, and they are growing. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. The resultant melting threatens the region’s people and ecosystems, but it also imperils low-lying islands and coastal cities half a world away. On the other hand, as glaciers retreat, water supplies are being put at risk. And for one-third of the world’s population living in dry lands, especially those in Africa, changing weather patterns threaten to exacerbate desertification, drought and food insecurity. (more…)

Currently the amount of wildfires in Europe is scary. Though mostly inflamed by business interests or to satisfy the desire for revenge the weather conditions are to blame for spreading and impact.

At present the gallery of Modis shows more satellite pictures of wildfires all over the planet. Picture above is from NASA’s MAP ‘06 Project