I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Weather statistics show Albuquerque and the rest of the United States were warmer than usual in 2007, and while one year does not a trend make, a new study says the higher temperatures are yet another indication that global warming is real and already affecting our lives.
In the meantime, Gov. Bill Richardson has yet to appoint the “green-ribbon” task force that will draft the state’s plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which is seen as a key element in reducing global warming. He wants the plan to be ready by the time the Legislature convenes in January.
Environment New Mexico this week issued its report, “Feeling the Heat: Global Warming and Rising Temperatures in the United States,” which says the average daily temperature in Albuquerque was 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in 2007 than the historical average. Nationwide, temperatures were the 10th-highest on record, and globally last year was the second-warmest, the study says.
Using National Weather Service temperature data from 255 stations in all 50 states, the study compares the first eight years of the 21st century with the last 30 years of the 20th century.
“Throw out the record books because global warming is raising temperatures in New Mexico and across the country,” Environment New Mexico spokeswoman Caitlin Cotter said in a news release. “While one or two degrees may not seem like much, just as any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect.”
Among the study’s findings, Albuquerque’s average minimum temperature in 2007 was 3 degrees above normal, while the town of Clayton had 56 days above 90 degrees — 20 more than the historical average.
Climate change experts say not to put much stock in the day-to-day or even seasonal variations of the weather, but to focus on the long-term trends. The new study emphasizes, as have others, that global temperatures have risen dramatically in recent decades. The solution, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
New Mexico has agreed to do its part through the Western Climate Initiative, a group of 10 states and Canadian provinces that have vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the region to 15 percent of their 2005 levels by 2020. Richardson said in September he would leave the details of the reduction plan to a task force, but that he wanted its plan presented to the Legislature for action in 2009.
Gregory Green, who as chairman of the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board has been tracking the state’s greenhouse gas plans, said he expects the task force to be named this month, and that the group will have recommendations ready by the start of the legislative session.
California, which is another member of the WCI, announced its plan to cap carbon emissions and allow polluters to trade them earlier this week. It is the first of the WCI signatories to act.
