Polar bear at the Maryland Zoo, July 2011 (via Flickr's Michael Bentley)

New data confirms what you already knew – July was incredibly hot, one of the warmest on record.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center just released its recap of July 2011. Here are some of the highlights:

• Persistent, scorching heat in the central and eastern United States during July 2011 contributed to the nation’s fourth-warmest July on record.
• The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for July 2011 was the seventh warmest on record, at 16.37°C (61.43°F), which is 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the 20^th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F).
• For the year-to-date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 14.31°C (57.82°F) was the 11^th warmest January–July period on record. This value is 0.51°C (0.92°F) above the 20^th century average.
• The average Arctic sea ice extent during July was 21.6 percent below average, ranking as the smallest July extent since satellite records began in 1979. The extent was 81,000 square miles (210,000 square kilometers) below the previous July record low, set in 2007.

“We’ve had another unusually warm month and are on the way to another unusually hot year, but the reality is that these conditions are the new normals that we all need to get used to,” said Dr. Amanda Staudt, climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation.

Here’s one example of our new normal: We’re on pace for the 35th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average. That means your humble blogger has never been alive in a year with global temperatures at or below the 20th century average.

You can get more details at the NOAA NCDC State of the Climate page, including this map of July extreme weather events. To read Dr. Staudt’s reports on the connection between climate change and extreme weather, visit NWF.org/ExtremeWeather.

The new data comes on the same day that Politifact looked into the climate science consensus, reporting that while some politicians may find it to be an inconvenient truth, “there is significant scientific consensus that human beings are contributing to global warming.”

Sound crazy? But according to Greenwire (sub. req.), that’s what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continues to tell scientists in its Sea Grant research program – they can talk about our problems, but they can’t talk about solutions:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced it will continue to distribute guidance that discourages scientists receiving Sea Grant research grants from speaking out on “issues of public debate,” despite a petition from an advocacy group to reverse the “gag rule.”

NOAA rejected a petition from the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility that asked the agency to alter their guidance related to the National Sea Grant College Program which funds scientific research. The guidance tells recipients of marine research grants to avoid advocacy “at all costs” — a policy that forces academics to keep quiet or risk losing their funding, according to PEER.

“Gagging scientists is bad enough, but the policy’s vagueness makes it even worse,” said Dr. Doug Inkley, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior scientist. “At a time when scientists are increasingly coming under political attack, it opens a gaping hole for a witch hunt about where scientists cross the line into ‘advocacy’. It doesn’t serve society well that the scientific experts on an issue are excluded from making management/policy recommendations in their area of expertise.”

Later on she sighed and said, “With the ease of growing tomatoes also comes the difficulty of keeping my wildflowers from blooming early…my garden sure is changing.”

Climate change is changing the landscape, as it were. Changing temperature and precipitation patterns alter the types of plant species that can survive in a given region.

To enhance awareness on the effects of climate change on America’s gardens, landscapes and other green spaces, the American Public Garden Association (APGA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are partnering to launch “A Changing Climate is Changing Plants” project. The project will provide visual information to visitors of public gardens that help identify which plant species will best survive in changing conditions.

NOAA

APGA’s gardens receive over 70 million visitors every year.

This is a special opportunity for NOAA to connect with gardeners and communities across the nation to help everyone better understand what changes in local climate mean for the plants, trees and landscaped areas around them. – NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco

There is telling evidence that climate change is affecting plant life around the world and at Longwood Gardens. For example, we have observed that plants are flowering earlier on average 1 day per decade over the last 150 years. -Longwood Gardens Director Paul Redman

Information from the project will also help planners, landscapers and farmers adapt their land to changes in climate.

National Wildlife Federation also helps gardeners plan for change. Learn more about gardening for wildlife, and gardening in a changing climate.