A report released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirms what many of us thought we knew anecdotally: It's hotter than ever out there.
The NOAA's National Climactic Data Center's "State of the Climate: National Overview June 2012" report concludes that the period from July 2011 to June 2012 saw average temperatures in the Lower 48 states that were more than 3 degrees above the long-term average since record-keeping began in 1895.
And if you're into sweating the details, climate scientists say it's going to get worse.
According to the Huffington Post, NOAA's head of climate monitoring, Derek Arndt, was quoted in a recent Associated Press story as saying, "In the future you would expect larger, longer more intense heat waves and we've seen that in the last few summers."
According to other Huffington Post stories, a report by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey found that sea level is rising at three to four times the global average in a "hotspot" along the Atlantic Coast, and a study by the National Research Council concluded that sea level in California will rise six inches by 2030.
The future that climate scientists have predicted for decades could be here. As one Princeton professor recently said, "What we are seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like."
But let us continue quibbling over the obvious while Rome burns. Global warming is a Liberal LIE. Let us continue with our 100 year old above ground power lines and 100 year old water and sewage systems. Let's all debate health care and that richie rich won't be able to golf five times a week instead of seeing that all of this could be gone in the next minute for weeks and months. The damage is done, now is the time to prepare for what is happening and will happen. Of course our more conservative friends won't stand for an infrastructure rebuild that might make many more jobs and that would reflect too well on the current administration.