Now, for the weather news: May global temperatures second hottest on record; arctic ice melts to the lowest extent ever. The all time global average temperature record since records began in 1880 for May was set in 2010, but the average temperatures this May were not far behind. This years average land surface temperature was the warmest May around the world, brought down to second place by ocean surface temperatures. For the Northern Hemisphere, where most of the world's human population lives, May 2012 temperature was 2.18℉ above the 20th century average. So far the Earth has experienced 327 consecutive months with global temperatures above the 20th century average.
2007 recorded the lowest extent of ice cover in the Arctic. That low is exceeded this year according to the National Snow & Ice Center. Thin ice in the Beaufort Sea above Alaska is melting rapidly which is not good news for polar bears and walruses. Vegetation in the arctic regions is changing as a result of the anthropomorphic warming. According to scientists from The University of Gothenburg and elsewhere who published in journals
Nature, Climate Change and
Ecology Letters, plants in the Arctic have grown taller and there is an increase in evergreen shrubs. By identifying 158 plant communities at 46 locations across the Arctic between 1990 and 2010 they have been able to identify general trends in vascular species. Not only vascular species are experiencing more favorable growth conditions. Researchers in the Chukchi Sea found a 62 mile long photoplankton bloom beneath the ice. They theorize that thinner sea ice is allowing more sunlight to penetrate to the sea surface which enables photosythesis by green algae.
