Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, holds up a temperature chart during a press conference at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2009. This decade has very likely been the warmest in the historical record, and 2009 will probably end up as one of the warmest years, the U.N. weather agency announced Tuesday at the second day of the 192-nation climate conference in Copenhagen. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

One of the big topics at last night’s cap-and-trade debate at the University of Charleston here in West Virginia was whether or not global warming has slowed down in recent years.

And just in time to answer that question, the World Meteorological Association issued a statement explaining that the decade from 2000 to 2009 appears to be the warmest 10-year period in the modern record.

The New York Times had a story on this here, and it’s also covered in Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog here.  And here’s a the full chart that is being shown in the photo above:

Among the latest news from Copenhagen that caught my attention:

—  Developing nations demanded deeper emissions cuts from rich nations, according to this report from Reuters.

— A draft proposal has already leaked out, according to the L.A. Times, and from The Guardian.

— The chairman of the IPCC on “ClimateGate.”

— A great comparison by James Fallows of NY Times and Washington Post stories on the stolen e-mails.

— It turns out the e-mail scandal isn’t such a big deal outside of the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued another briefing paper on those hacked e-mails, and it’s well worth reading. Among other things, the group says:

While the emails do raise some valid concerns about scientific integrity, they do not indicate that climate data and research have been compromised. Media stories that report they do are inaccurate. And opponents of climate change action are either lying about the emails or are ignorant of the climate science involved.

I’d be interested in what the skeptics among Coal Tattoo readers have to say about this commentary … and I remain interested in suggested news sites or commentary sites to keep tract of what’s going on in Copenhagen.

One that I’ve been using is the CopenBlog set up by an organization I belong to, the Society of Environmental Journalists. Check it out.

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