- OSLO (Reuters) - Swimmers
are enjoying winter dips in the Mediterranean, ski resorts from Canada
to France have laid off workers and shops are axing prices of thick coats
at the start of what scientists say be the warmest year on record.
-
- With unusually high temperatures, dazed bears in Moscow
zoo have just dropped off for winter hibernation after months of insomnia
while peacocks in a Bulgarian zoo have laid eggs, reckoning spring has
long since arrived.
-
- Warmth has brought peach, plum and apricot blossoms months
early in Italy and snow drop flowers are blooming in Chicago. Some farmers
worry that sprouting crops are vulnerable to frost.
-
- "We are in a period of extreme events," said
Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, noting five months
of floods in east Africa and melting Alpine glaciers.
-
- Global warming, stoked by greenhouse gases from burning
fossil fuels, and an El Nino warming of the Pacific Ocean are widely blamed
by scientists for mild weather that contributed to push below $53 a barrel
on Thursday, a new 19-month low.
-
- Steiner said governments should cut greenhouse gases
and work out how to adapt to more heat -- the 10 warmest years since records
began 150 years ago have been since 1994.
-
- "Climate change, whether this is linked to greenhouse
gases or not, is real and it's getting more extreme," he told Reuters.
-
- Against a warming trend, California has put out a warning
of a looming freeze in coming days. In Bahrain, people have donated winter
clothes to poor Indian immigrants after a cool December.
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- SWIM, NOT SKI
-
- Spain's southern region of Andalucia has had temperatures
of almost 20 Celsius (68.00F) in recent days and people are still swimming
in the Mediterranean -- normally too chilly in winter.
-
- A lack of snow has upset the Alpine World Cup ski calendar
and France's Val d'Isere will host two men's races on Jan. 20-21 originally
scheduled for Chamonix.
-
- In Europe, workers have been laid off in ski resorts
from France to Norway. Canada's Blue Mountain resort in Ontario closed
twice this season and temporarily laid off 1,000 workers.
-
- Still, some skiers are still able to make a joke of it
all. Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist,
skied naked alongside the famed Lauberhorn downhill course after losing
a dare with his physiotherapist.
-
- "I am happy ... that it was not cold when I carried
out my forfeit," he said of Wednesday's stunt, wearing only ski boots,
gloves and an orange helmet.
-
- The United Nations says 2006 was the sixth warmest year
worldwide since records began in the 1860s. U.S. government forecasters
say 2006 was the warmest in the United States since records began there
112 years ago.
-
- And Britain's Meteorological Office has projected that
2007 will be the warmest worldwide on record, because of global warming
and the El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific.
-
- In Belgium, for example, average temperatures were 11.8
Celsius (53.24F) in early 2007 -- typical of June.
-
- The heat means shoppers are finding winter bargains.
-
- "Shop stockrooms are full of heavy coats, consumers
will have more choice and probably bigger discounts than last year,"
Roberto Borghi, chairman of Italy's fashion retailers' association, told
Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper.
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- But many farmers are worried.
-
- In South Africa, hailstones the size of tennis balls
pounded the Eastern Cape province, killing small livestock, in the summer
month of December, the national weather service said.
-
- Europe's wheat farmers had ideal weather in the autumn
but plants are vulnerable. "The risk of frost damage and winterkill
is ... higher than normal," French analyst Strategie Grains said.
-
- And pests usually killed by cold are surviving -- also
raising fears in some nations of more cases of malaria.
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- In the Nordic region, mild temperatures have helped cut
the number of accidents on normally icy roads. And construction workers
are working on outdoor sites normally frozen.
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