Warm Earth

It has transpired that the green house effect continued this year.

The Japanese agency in charge of the weather forecast came to a conclusion, based on the data collected from around the world, that this year`s average temperature of the world was 0.58ºC higher than that of the past 30-year period ranging from 1972 to 2001, reported Asahi Shimbun yesterday.

This is the second time that the average temperature of the earth in a certain year is higher than that of the past years, ever since the agency started collecting data in 1880. The biggest difference occurred in 1998, or 0.64ºC due to El Nino.

The differences between the two averages in the 1990s have occupied top 5 positions among the ones tallied ever since 1880, indicating that the green house effect has become severer in recent years.

The Japanese agency explained, "Emission of the green house gases like CO2 has been increased, and the long-term cyclic climate change that comes back in several or dozens of years seems also contributed."

The average temperature of the world is computed from the data that are collected at 1,300 points around the world by the end of November. The average has increased by 0.7ºC for the past 100 years up to the year of 2000.

hanscho@donga.com