Climate Records Shattered in 2013

By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer

July 18, 2014

If global warming could be compared to middle-age weight gain, then Earth is growing a boomer belly, according to
a newly released report on the state of the global climate.
Climate data show that global temperatures in 2013 continued their long-term rising trend. In fact, 2013 was
somewhere between the second- and sixth-hottest year on record for the planet since record keeping began in 1880,
according to the climate report, released Thursday (July 17) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). (Four groups of scientists, who rely on slightly different methods to calculate global surface
temperatures, ranked 2013 slightly differently compared with other years.)
The annual State of the Climate report compiles climate and weather data from around the world and is reviewed by
425 climate scientists from 57 countries. The report can be viewed online.
"You can think of it as an annual checkup on the planet," said Kathryn Sullivan, NOAA administrator.
And the checkup results show the planet ranged well outside of normal levels in 2013, hitting new records for
greenhouse gases, Arctic heat, warm ocean temperatures and rising sea levels.
"The climate is changing more rapidly in today's world than at any time in modern civilization," said Thomas Karl,
director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. "If we look at it like we're trying to maintain an ideal weight, then
we're continuing to see ourselves put more weight on from year to year," he said.
Climate scientists blame rising levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere for the
planet's changing climate. The levels of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii
hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in 2013. The worldwide average reached 395.3 ppm, a 2.8 ppm
increase from 2012, NOAA reports. (Parts per million denotes the volume of a gas in the air; in this case, for every 1
million air molecules, 400 are carbon dioxide.)
"The major greenhouse gases all reached new record high values in 2013," said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist
with ERT, Inc., and a NOAA contractor who helped write the report.
Most parts of the planet experienced above-average annual temperatures in 2013, NOAA officials said. Australia
experienced its warmest year on record, while Argentina had its second warmest and New Zealand its third
warmest. There was a new high-temperature record set at the South Pole, of minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit (minus
47 degrees Celsius).
Here are the highlights from the report:
Sea level continued rising: Boosted by warm Pacific Ocean temperatures (which causes water to expand) and
melting ice sheets, sea level rose 0.15 inches (3.8 millimeters), on par with the long-term trend of 0.13 inches (3.2
mm) per year over the past 20 years.
Antarctic sea ice hit another record high: On October 1, Antarctic sea ice covered 7.56 million square miles (19.5
million square kilometers). This beats the old record set in 2012 by 0.7 percent. However, even though the Antarctic
sea ice is growing, the continent's land-based glaciers continued to melt and shrink.
Arctic sea ice low: The Arctic sea ice extent was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. The
sea ice extent is declining by about 14 percent per decade.
Extreme weather: Deadly Super Typhoon Haiyan had the highest wind speed ever recorded for a tropical cyclone,
with one-minute sustained winds reaching 196 mph (315 km/h). Flooding in central Europe caused billions of dollars
in damage and killed 24 people.
Melting permafrost: For the second year in a row, record high temperatures were measured in permafrost on the
North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. Permafrost is frozen ground underneath the Earth's surface. The
temperatures were recorded more than 60 feet (20 meters) deep.
Arctic heat: Temperatures over land are rising faster in the Arctic than in other regions of the planet. Fairbanks,
Alaska, had a record 36 days with temperatures at 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) or warmer. However,
Greenland had a cooler than average summer.
Warm seas: Sea surface temperatures for 2013 were among the 10 warmest on record. Temperatures in the North
Pacific hit a record high in 2013.
Original article on Live Science.
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Malaysia Airlines faces a difficult future
By Gaurav Raghuvanshi and Jeffrey Ng
July 18, 2014

Malaysia Airlines has lost two planes carrying 537 people, in the space of five months. Now, the big question for the
carrier's survival is: Will passengers keep taking their flights?
Aviation and crisis-management experts say the fate of Malaysia's flagship carrier will hinge on how it weathers
what's expected to be another sharp drop in bookings after its latest air disaster, when Flight 17 from Amsterdam to
Kuala Lumpur crashed Thursday in the battle-torn region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. U.S. intelligence agencies
say they believe the plane was struck by a ground-to-air missile.
The crash took place at the height of the holiday travel season for Europeans, who accounted for over half of the
passengers aboard, and during the Islamic month of Ramadan, a busy travel period for Muslims. The Boeing 777
the airline's main long-haul workhorsewas completely full, carrying 298 people.
The airline had already been reeling from the March disappearance of Flight 370, which vanished about an hour
after taking off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard. Taken together, that is the biggest casualty toll
suffered by any airline over such a short time span.
"A double tragedy of this nature after such a short period is unheard of in the industry,'' said Vivian Lines, global vice
chairman and crisis-management expert at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Singapore. "They were the wrong airline in
the wrong place at the wrong time.''
The disasters could deal a crippling reputational and financial blow to Malaysia Airlines' listed parent, Malaysian
Airline System Bhd, which is 69%-owned by the Malaysia state investment firm. The airline had already been
suffering from years of poor performance. A high cost base and robust labor unions that represent its 20,000-strong
workforce have eroded the airline's competitiveness against the region's leaner and highly profitable low-cost
carriers.
Malaysian Airline System Bhd. reported a net loss of 443 million ringgit ($139.5 million) in the first quarter, widening
from a loss of 279 million in the same quarter last year. In 2013, the company reported a loss of 1.17 billion ringgit,
its third consecutive year in the red.
At the end of the first quarter, the company had $1.06 billion in cash-on-hand and $3.7 billion in total debt, according
to data from S&P Capital IQ. Total debt has more than doubled from $1.78 billion at the end of 2011.
If the company continues to incur losses, which is widely forecast, some analysts say they expect its current cash
levels to allow the airline to run operations until the end of next year, before it would need to consider seeking a
capital bailout from the state.
Malaysia Airlines' yieldshow much money the carrier makes per passenger for each kilometer flown, and an
important measure of profitabilitywere already falling after the first disaster, said Ian Douglas, senior lecturer of
aviation at the University of New South Wales. If spooked passengers avoid the airline's flights, those yields could
fall further.
After a boom in passenger numbers during 2013, Malaysia Airlines' passenger growth has been decelerating
steadily since February, according to the company's monthly traffic data.
Following the disappearance of Flight 370 in March, the carrier registered a year-on-year decline in passenger
numbers of 4% in May to 1.3 million, its first fall in traffic since September 2012. Still, airline executives have said
traffic had begun to improve in recent weeks.
Reflecting the loss of consumer confidence, Mr. Douglas says several of his friends in Australia have canceled
travel on Malaysia Airlines, rebooking on rival Singapore Airlines Ltd. after Thursday's crash. That is "even though
they know the loss of the aircraft could have happened to any carrier flying from western Europe towards Southeast
Asia," he said.
"The business implications for Malaysia Airlines are very, very significant,'' said Jonathan Galaviz, partner at
consulting firm Global Market Advisors. "The Malaysia Airlines brand is heavily damaged, even if it's not the airline's
fault."
The unprecedented nature of the disasters makes it difficult for analysts to assess the airline's ability to overcome its
woes. But the biggest challenge for the airline, they say, will be how it could keep its passenger figures up without
substantial discounting, a strategy it is recently resorted to to fill more seats.
"Before [the latest crash] it was just a cost issuenow I would question that there's going to be a revenue problem
as well," as demand will likely plummet despite the peak travel season, says Daniel Tsang, founder at Aspire
Aviation, a Hong Kong-based consultancy.
"The dire situation of the airline right now is just the tip of the iceberg that has been brewing for the last decade," he
said.
To be sure, industry watchers expect the Malaysian government to step in if the situation gets too bad. Earlier this
month, people with knowledge of the airline's restructuring process said that the Malaysian state investment firm,
Khazanah Nasional Bhd., was considering taking the company private to tackle its financial crisis.
They said if the company was taken private, it would be easier for its management to push tough decisions without
being questioned by shareholders.
Analysts said the best course of action may be to let the airline fail, and then to rebuild it from the ground up.
"Starting from scratch, while radical, will be a very sustainable measure over the long run," said Mr. Tsang.
Several premium carriers, including Swiss International Air Lines with its predecessor Swissair, and Japan Airlines
Co. have in recent years gone through similar restructuring programs in hopes to rebuilding financial strength.
Malaysian Airline System's Kuala Lumpur-traded stock was lately trading down over 11% after falling as much as 18%
earlier in the session. The stock price is down around 25% since the disappearance of Flight 370 in March.
For now, Malaysia Airlines needs to concentrate on handling Thursday's crash better than it did the disappearance
of Flight 370 in March, said Hill+Knowlton's Mr. Lines. This time, it should be easier to figure out what happened
something that is still a mystery in the case of Flight 370and to comfort the families of victims, he said.
Key players seem to have learned lessons from the first disaster as well: Malaysia's prime minister was on television
making a clear, public statement soon after the crash, an improvement over the confused and delayed March
response from officials and the airline.
Longer term, Malaysia Airlines has to reassure passengers that it is safe to travel on its planes, something that
could require a complete overhaul of the company and the brand, Mr. Lines said.
Phred Dvorak contributed to this article.