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Sun Devil Women’s Basketball to Honor No. 21 Jersey of Hall of Famer Ryneldi Becenti on Dec. 21

Courtesy: Sun Devil Athletics

TEMPE, Ariz. – Ryneldi Becenti, a member of the Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame who twice earned honorable mention All-America notice as a member of the Sun Devil women’s basketball team, will have her No. 21 jersey honored and displayed from the rafters of Wells Fargo Arena on Sat., Dec. 21 when the Sun Devils host the University of Miami, Sun Devil head coach Charli Turner Thorne announced on Monday.

“As we started to evaluate the stars of our distinguished past, it quickly became apparent that no player was more celebrated or had more of an impact – both in her community and within our own Sun Devil community – than Ryneldi Becenti,” said Turner Thorne. “While already in our Hall of Fame for her achievements as a student-athlete, we felt a program-specific tribute like this was fitting for a special individual whose influence went beyond the basketball court.

“The incredible work ethic and desire that led her to our program galvanized the Native American community. Her outstanding contributions as a Sun Devil enhanced her legendary status and remain an inspiration for many. I am so proud to be announcing that we will be hanging Ryneldi Becenti’s No. 21 jersey from the rafters of Wells Fargo Arena on Dec. 21. We hope all our fans and basketball enthusiasts alike will mark the date in their calendars to come out and help us pay tribute to this Sun Devil icon.”

Becenti was a two-time honorable mention All-America honoree while also becoming one of only three Sun Devils (at the time) to earn All-Pac-10 first-team honors twice in a career.

Following two successful seasons at Scottsdale Community College, Becenti joined ASU where her outstanding all-around play was pivotal in helping the Sun Devils earn a NCAA Tournament berth in 1992, the program’s first tournament invite since 1983.

By the conclusion of her two-year Sun Devil career, Becenti would accumulate 396 career assists, which at the time represented the second-highest career total in program history. Her career average of 7.1 assists per game remains a Pac-12 record to this day, while her 17-assist outing vs. Marquette in 1992 still sits atop the team’s list for most assists in a single game. With 15 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a Jan. 25, 1992, game against Oregon State, Becenti became the first player in school history to record a triple-double and was the lone player in the NCAA – men or women – to record the feat that season.

Becenti’s enormous popularity in the community and the Navajo Nation received national acclaim in March 1993, when she was featured in a Sports Illustrated article written by award-winning journalist Gary Smith.

As a member the 1993 USA team at the World University Games, Becenti became the first Native American female to earn a medal at the event. She would also go on to earn the distinction of becoming the first Native American to play in the WNBA as a member of the hometown Phoenix Mercury.

In 1996, she became the first woman inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame adding to her list of enshrinements, which includes the Scottsdale Community College Hall of Fame, Arizona State University Hall of Fame and the Arizona High School Sports Hall of Fame.

A native of Fort Defiance, Ariz., Becenti earned high school All-America honors playing for Window Rock High School. Her stellar play continued at Scottsdale Community College where she earned junior college All-American recognition.

Turning the Tide on Early Childhood Obesity

Dr. Janey Thornton, Native News Network

WASHINGTON – Here at USDA, we’re on a mission to help all of our nation’s children have the best possible chance at a healthy life. So, we’re very encouraged by some recent news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: the rate of obesity among low income preschool children appears to be declining for the first time in decades.

The declining rates show that our collective efforts are helping to gain ground on childhood obesity, particularly among some of the more vulnerable populations in our country. Low income children are often at a disadvantage when it comes to getting the food they need to grow up healthy, which is why USDA’s nutrition programs and resources are so vital.

USDA programs like WIC, with its new, healthier food package offerings, and CACFP, with its increasing emphasis on nutrition and physical activity are making a difference in the lives of millions of children. In addition, educational materials like Healthy Eating for Preschoolers and Nutrition and Wellness Tips for Young Children can help adults get children off to the right start in life.

Our efforts don’t stop there. School aged children are now getting healthier and more nutritious school meals and snacks, thanks to changes implemented under the historic Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Our Team Nutrition initiative provides nutrition education to help schools serve healthier meals and motivate kids to form healthy habits. We’re supporting healthy, local foods in schools through our Farm to School grant program. And we’re improving access to fresh produce and healthy foods for children and families that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Don’t get me wrong, we still have a long way to go before America’s childhood obesity epidemic is a thing of the past. Far too many, 1 out of every 8 preschoolers are still obese. And, obesity in these early childhood years sets the stage for serious health problems throughout the entire lifespan. But we at USDA are proud of our ongoing efforts to ensure the health of America’s next generation, and we know that these efforts are playing a vital role in turning the tide on early childhood obesity. Learn more about USDA’s efforts to improve child nutrition or visit choosemyplate.gov » for quick, easy nutrition and diet tips for families.

Dr. Janey Thornton is the Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the USDA.

Material collection and preparation big part of basket weaving

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

If you aren’t in the mood, don’t weave. It shows up in the work.” That’s one of the many things Quileute tribal member Cathy Salazar has learned after 16 years of basket weaving.

“The weave will get too tight or sloppy if you aren’t in the right frame of mind,” said Salazar.

Despite years of weaving, Salazar didn’t fully appreciate the traditional ways of preparing materials for some time because others provided the cedar and grasses ready to use in baskets. “It was all ready to go and Grandma Lillian Pullen or my other instructors would weave the basket bottoms for me to get the basket started,” said Salazar. Lillian was her first teacher and everyone called her “grandma.”

However, there came a time when the raw materials weren’t as easily available, so Salazar went out with a group of tribal members to strip cedar bark and learned all the days of hard work behind preparing it for weaving. “When people look at a basket and grumble about the price, they usually don’t’ understand that the weaving is the fastest part for accomplished basket-makers. The preparation takes the most time,” Salazar said.

Once the cedar bark is stripped from the tree, the outer bark must be separated from the inner bark. Then it is dried indoors to prevent mold. It is either stored or soaked in water if it will be used in the near future.

Salazar chuckles that her sister Anne Walker, who lives in Arizona, can have cedar harvested in May ready to use by July because of Arizona’s hot and dry climate. In the rainforest, “I’m probably not able to use it until November,” she said.

Properly preserved, the weaving materials can be stored for many years. “Some weavers have cedar that was their grandmother’s that they use in baskets,” Salazar said. “When folks are looking at baskets, they always comment they can smell the cedar when they are holding those old-growth baskets. The color is darker, too.”

Salazar’s sister, who is three years older, also pushed her to learn all the aspects of basket weaving. “She just wasn’t going to let me keep having others start baskets for me or fix my problems when I got stuck,” Salazar said, laughing.

Quileute Natural Resources now organizes collection of the cedar bark each year as part of a cooperative agreement with Rayonier. A unit is identified and natural resources employees mark the way to the grove for collection and provide transportation, if necessary. Cedar is also collected and distributed to those who aren’t able to collect it themselves. “I think we had the most requests that I can remember for materials this year,” Salazar said.

Salazar knows the value of the materials and gives prepared cedar to relatives and friends who weave as presents for birthdays and other holidays. “They appreciate it because they know how much work it takes to get it ready. For me, I would trade it ounce for ounce for gold.”

Stillaguamish Festival of the River renews focus on community education

Kirk BoxleitnerTanya White, who danced at last year's Stillaguamish Festival of the River and Pow Wow, has been dancing at pow pows since she was 3 years old. — Kirk Boxleitner
Tanya White, who danced at last year’s Stillaguamish Festival of the River and Pow Wow, has been dancing at pow pows since she was 3 years old.

Kirk Boxleitner, Arlington Times

ARLINGTON — As the Stillaguamish Festival of the River and Pow Wow head into their 24th year on Saturday, Aug. 10, and Sunday, Aug. 11, festival coordinator Tamara Neuffer has promised attendees that they’ll encounter an entirely different map of the grounds to go along with the event’s renewed focus on community education.

“Rather than placing them in separate areas, we’ve reorganized our layout of educational and vendor booths to mimic the Stillaguamish River and its tributaries,” said Neuffer, who also serves as the education and outreach coordinator for the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians, which presents the festival and pow wow at the River Meadows County Park, located at 20416 Jordan Rd. in Arlington. “By simulating a journey down the river, we hope to give people a sense of why it’s important to protect this watershed. We’re really stepping up our game to be more interactive and find better ways of reaching out.”

To further engage festival-goers in the event’s educational mission, Neuffer hopes to incentivize it through “passports” that require attendees to receive stamps from each educational booth before they can become eligible for raffle prizes.

“We’ve also increased the size of our kids’ zone, which is now called the ‘Fun Zone’ and sponsored by the Community Health Plan of Washington,” Neuffer said. “We’re teaching kids to get outdoors by showing them all the fun things they can do. We’ve really beefed up the activities for kids and adults alike to make this even more of a family friendly event.”

Neuffer believes that visitors to this year’s pow wow will likewise find it even more inviting than before.

“This year, we’ll have the Yellow Bird Dancers doing hoop-dancing, as well as a Hispanic dance troupe,” Neuffer said. “We’ve installed a roof with lights over the pow wow area, and we’ve even put bleacher seating in the back. I think some people might not have been sure if they were welcome at the pow wows, so hopefully, these steps will make them less tentative about being spectators to that event.”

Just as the festival’s stated mission is to aid people who live and work in the surrounding region in understanding how their actions can help make their environment healthier for people, fish and other wildlife, so too does Neuffer see the potential of the festival and its pow wow to promote cultural awareness and outreach efforts.

“Our musical lineup is what brings a lot of people in, which allows us to educate a lot of people at one time,” Neuffer said, touting the two stages of performers that will be running concurrently on both days. “We want to make learning about the environment and cultural communities fun for them.”

The gates to the River Meadows County Park open at 10 a.m. on both days of the Stillaguamish Festival of the River and Pow Wow. While admission to the event is free, parking is $5 per car until 4 p.m., after which it becomes $10. For more information, log onto http://festivaloftheriver.com.

Amber Alert kidnap suspect may be using explosives, officials say

By Kate Mather, Tony Perry and Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times
August 9, 2013, 3:15 a.m.

Authorities searching for a missing San Diego County teenager allegedly abducted by a family friend stretched warned that her alleged abductor might be using explosives.

The suspect, James Lee DiMaggio, 40, might have abandoned his blue Nissan Versa and left it booby-trapped with explosives, authorities said, warning people that if they find the vehicle or anywhere he might have stopped, they should stay away.

DiMaggio is an avid outdoorsman, and authorities are also urging people to be on the lookout at campsites and other rural areas where he might be hiding.

Four days into the search for 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, authorities were no closer to finding her or DiMaggio, though numerous tips have poured in to law enforcement agencies in multiple states.

“Basically, the search area is the United States, Canada and Mexico,” said Lt. Glenn Giannantonio of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. “The search area is North America.”

As the search fanned out Thursday, authorities had no confirmed sightings of Anderson or DiMaggio, who is believed to have abducted the teenager Sunday after killing her mother and 8-year-old brother in Boulevard, a rural border town in eastern San Diego County.

An Amber Alert for Hannah Anderson and her brother Ethan was active in four states Thursday, though authorities said it was possible she might have been taken to Texas, or even Canada. Boulevard is about five miles north of the Mexican border, and the FBI was working with Mexican authorities to search for DiMaggio, Giannantonio said.

New details in the case emerged Thursday about the death of Hannah’s mother, 44-year-old Christina Anderson of Lakeside, another community east of San Diego. Anderson died of blunt force trauma and may have been hit with a crowbar, a source close to the investigation said.

Anderson’s body was found in a stand-alone garage near DiMaggio’s burning home, the source said. The body of a child was found in the house. Although the child has not been identified because the body was badly burned and DNA difficult to obtain, family members have said they believe it to be Ethan.

Christina Anderson’s dog was also found dead on the property, Giannantonio said.

An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for DiMaggio, and a judge agreed to set bail at $1 million if he is arrested, San Diego County sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

As the Amber Alert widened to Nevada, authorities said DiMaggio might have changed vehicles.

Cleveland Abduction Survivors: There Is Hope For America’s Missing Children

Residents listen to speeches before releasing balloons in support of the three women found in a house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio May 9, 2013. (AP/David Duprey)

The three women held for years by Ariel Castro have used their public stature to highlight the child abduction problem.

By Frederick Reese, Mint Press

In Cleveland, kidnapping survivor Michelle Knight watched Tuesday as the house that served as her prison for a decade was torn down. Surrounded by members of the county prosecutor’s office and a group of Guardian Angels grasping dozens of yellow balloons — each representing a child that was abducted but not recovered — which she released, Knight stated that her visit had a simple purpose: that there is hope.

“Nobody was there for me when I was missing, and I want the people to know, including the mothers, that they can have strength, they can have hope, and their child will come back,” Knight said.

Knight, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry were kidnapped and held captive by Ariel Castro at his home at 2207 Seymour Ave. until Berry kicked her way through the front door with the assistance of a bystander and escaped last May. On August 1, Castro was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus an additional millenium in prison after pleading guilty to the 937 counts he was indicted with, including multiple counts of rape, kidnapping and murder.

Since their release, all three women have used the public attention afforded them to highlight the child abduction problem in this country. “Our work is not done. We gotta keep our eyes and ears open. Don’t let these girls go in vain,” said Felix DeJesus, father of Gina DeJesus, at Cleveland’s Latino Fest parade last weekend.

Child abductions in America

According to the last comprehensive national study taken on the state of missing children, completed in 1999, there are approximately 800,000 children under the age of 18 reported missing in the United States, with more than 58,000 estimated to have been abducted by non-family members. 115 of these cases are estimated to be a “stereotypical” kidnapping, in which a stranger kidnapped the child, held him/her 50 miles or more away from the abduction site, and killed, ransomed or committed to permanently holding the child.

The remainder fall into categories including sex trafficking, familial abductions, assisted runaways and random assault. The recovery rate of missing or abducted children stands at 97 percent today — a 35 percent increase from 1990. However, for the approximately 24,000 children that have yet to be found, the road home may be hard and even impossible to find.

“It was a regular shopping mall that my parents and I went school shopping at every year, but this guy managed to exchange phone numbers with me,” said Holly Smith, a child sex trafficking survivor, to HuffPost Live in reflection of her own abduction story. Smith was interviewed after the announcement that the FBI has recovered more than 100 victims of child sex trafficking and arrested 150 pimps in a three-day nationwide sweep. Smith was 14 when she was abducted and was held for only 36 hours before being arrested for prostitution. “We talked on the phone for about two weeks, and he sort of tapped into my interests and my concerns and he was able to play off my vulnerabilities.”

“He was able to lure me away from home with things like — he could help me become a model, he could help me become a songwriter because I really wanted to join a rock band. Things that might sound not so real to an adult. They worked well on me at 14. And so he lured me away from home, and within hours of running away, I was forced into prostitution in Atlantic City, N.J.”

Stories such as Smith’s and the case of Jocelyn Rojas — a 5-years-old Lancaster, Penn. girl who was saved from abduction by an attentive 15-years-old boy, Temar Boggs, who noticed a car being driven in a peculiar manner — seem to capture the public’s imagination and draw a prompt response. But what happens when the abduction case does not draw a public response?

Adult abductions and law enforcement inadequacies

Last week, one of the three men held captive by 31-year-old Walter Renard Jones, William Merle Greenawalt, 79, has died of complications due to malnourishment. Jones has been charged with two counts of elderly abuse with serious bodily injury. It has been alleged that Jones held Greenawalt, Dean Cottingham, 59, and John Edward Padget, 64, in his garage so that he could collect on the men’s assistance checks.

In cases such as this, the inadequacies of the way law enforcement handles such situations start to show. While recent efforts, such as the AMBER Alert System, have resulted in a net improvement in recovery rates, abducted adults are considered low-priority. Many police departments will not take a missing person case for an adult prior to 24 hours after the disappearance, and most will not extend full resources to the case, due to the possibility that the missing person wishes to not be found.

While police response rates for abducted children to the child’s home or scene of abduction are modest — an estimated 68 percent, according to the 1999 Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children (NISMART-2) — the response rate for adult disappearances is dramatically less. Recently, Butte County has been profiled in the media for its efforts to create its first master list of missing persons.

“It’s not completely surprising that there was no master list. If someone is missing today, they most likely will still be missing tomorrow. But if a homicide or some other serious crime occurs today, limited investigative resources would be more productively spent on those immediate cases,” reported the Chino Enterprise-Record on the Butte County Sheriff’s Office’s efforts. “That’s how a file on the missing might go missing as well. It’s not that it’s unimportant. It’s just that it’s not as timely.”

In light of dwindling budgets, shifting priorities and an ill-defined division of jurisdictions between the federal government and local authorities in missing persons cases, many cases get overlooked or ignored, and situations such as the Jaycee Dugard abduction — in which Dugard was held captive for more than 18 years by a sex offender who was enrolled as a parolee — and the Ariel Castro case are allowed to proliferate. For those still waiting to be found, more needs to be done.

Several unconfirmed Amber Alert sightings in W. Wash.

SEATTLE (AP) – The Washington State Patrol says it has received several unconfirmed reports of people spotting a car wanted in connection with two deaths and a child abduction in Southern California.

Sgt. Jason Hicks says people up and down the Interstate 5 corridor have reported seeing the blue Nissan Versa being sought by authorities. Some reports have come in from the Vancouver, Wash., area and others from the Tacoma area.

There was also an unconfirmed sighting on the Olympic Peninsula, in which the caller reported seeing a blue Nissan hatchback with a man driving and a female passenger in the back. The caller said the car appeared to have California plates.

Troopers have been responding to each report but haven’t located the car.

Hicks also says State Patrol personnel at Washington’s ferry terminals are keeping an eye out, and that once the Patrol received information about the Amber Alert from California authorities, it forwarded the information to Canadian officials, the U.S. Border Patrol and Idaho police.

The Amber Alert was expanded to Oregon, Washington and Nevada as authorities search for James Lee DiMaggio, 40, who is believed to have kidnapped 16-year-old Hannah Anderson. DiMaggio is believed to be driving a blue 2013 Nissan Versa with California plate 6WCU986.

Source: Komo News

Anyone who sees DiMaggio or the car is asked to call 911.

DiMaggio is also a suspect in the death of Christina Anderson, Hannah’s mother, and the possible death or abduction of her 8-year old son Ethan.

On Sunday night, authorities found the body of Christina Anderson near a dead dog when they extinguished flames at DiMaggio’s rural home. A child’s body was found later as they sifted through rubble in Boulevard, a remote hamlet 65 miles east of San Diego on the U.S.-Mexico border.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Capt. Duncan Fraser said Thursday that evidence recovered at James Lee DiMaggio’s home east of San Diego suggests he might have fled with homemade explosives.

Fraser says it’s possible DiMaggio was infatuated with the girl and her grandfather said Wednesday it appeared DiMaggio had carefully planned the abduction.

Also Wednesday, a friend of Hannah Anderson said DiMaggio told Hannah he had a crush on her and would date her if they were the same age.

“She was a little creeped out by it. She didn’t want to be alone with him,” said the friend, Marissa Chavez.

Choose Love And Walk the Rivers to Save Them

By Sharon M. Day, ICTMN

My culture teaches that as an Ojibwe I have an inherent obligation to not only protect myself, my family, and my tribe but ultimately all humanity, including the environment that sustains us. We are spirit beings who came into this world to live the human experience. That spirit is love and it resides in our hearts.

My own struggle began early as I found a place of equality among my family, friends, and community because I was born lesbian and enjoy my life as a two spirit person. The Creator has smiled on me by giving me the opportunity to help others struggling with the still prevalent homophobic and sexist attitudes; not to mention that we also live as a conquered nation of people.

I have protested, walked picket lines, and was arrested for protecting Camp Coldwater back in 1999. These confrontation tactics seem no longer effective and may in fact, hinder progress for change. Earlier in my career I took a different approach by working within the political system. While there have been minor but important victories in a few social policy areas, I remain somewhat disappointed that more have not been moved to action.

In recent years, I have led two water walks to pray for the water and to raise the public awareness about the pollution affecting our waters. As I have crossed the United States twice from south to north and north to south, I have observed the individuals who have taken this journey with me. Carrying the water in a ceremonious way every day creates transformation. The water is a living entity and as such, it has a spirit. This spirit responds to the love shown to it. In this way, we have changed the way we think, feel and act toward our mother earth and the water.

At recent events, a white, female environmental scientist suggested that environmentalists were the new “abolitionists.” That one way to create change was to practice civil disobedience and populate the jails to save the environment. I wondered if she realized that 80% of the jails are already filled with people of color. Also many people of color do not have the luxury of taking 15 days off without pay to make a statement. I wondered what Black people might think of her analogy likening environmentalists to abolitionists. It took the abolitionists 100 years to end slavery. I’m not sure we have 100 years to save ourselves.

Meanwhile, Native peoples are taking a stand for clean water and land issues, by protesting against corporations and governments building the pipelines, blocking roads and railroad tracks, even confiscating a “thumper truck” to stop shale oil exploration in New Brunswick, Canada.

More direct actions are being planned all summer long. I respect the choices and the stands they are willing to take for sovereignty, for the land, for the water. However, some of what I hear is disturbing. For example the desire to renegotiate the terms of the agreements for mineral, oil and gas extraction so native people get a fair share of the profits. We could spend an entire article discussing the wrongs of capitalism that promotes hoarding and greed. Exactly opposite of what our ancestors valued. What does it matter who benefits or gets richer if we lose our precious water and continue to destroy the land?

An exception is a reserve in Canada where the people stand to earn over 59 million dollars selling solar energy. I wish more of our tribes would invest in renewable energy and create employment for their people.

Perhaps there will come a time again, where I am willing to engage in confrontation and I will be willing to put my life on the line, but for right now, I will choose ceremony allowing the asemaa to lead me.

I plan to continue walking the rivers that are endangered. I believe love is the healing grace. I choose to move forward in the spirit of love and bring people along with me in ceremony. The spirit lives in love, love is where the spirit lives.

Can an Indigenous world-view of respect, love, and kindness create a revolution founded in these values to create a shared world of love and respect for the Earth, our mama akii and the water, sacred water, m’de nibi?

Sharon Day, Ojibwe, is the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force.

Chaos on the Clearwater River: Second night of tar sands megaload blockades

Source: Earth First! Newswire

After a three-hour blockade involving upwards of 150-200 people from the Nez Perce Nation, Idle No More, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide, activists once again dedicated themselves last night to stopping megaload shipments through Idaho.

Omega Morgan, the company responsible for the transport of the 200-ton megaload, has been warned by the Forest Service that the shipment is unauthorized, and the Nez Perce tribe is seeking an injunction. However, Omega Morgan is trying to sneak the megaload through against the law, so direct action must be taken.

The Nez Perce put out a call yesterday for activists to join them in renewed efforts to stop the tar sands equipment from moving through Highway 12. More than 50 protestors came out. They were met by a force of 40-50 police officers in a fleet of cars.

Police gave protesters 15 minutes to speak out as they blocked the roadway, before being forced to move to the shoulder. Some young activists decided to maintain the presence of the blockade by heaving boulders and large rocks into the streets, which held traffic up further.

Several Nez Perce tribe-members were arrested, adding to the 19 arrested on Monday night (including the entire executive committee).

Mother Earth’s Slow Burn: Climate Change Indicators Climbing, Says NOAA

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The signs of climate change—rising oceans, melting Arctic ice and increasing greenhouse gases among them—are continuing inexorably, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a report issued on Tuesday August 6.

Culling data from 384 scientists hailing from 52 countries, NOAA said in its report, 2012 State of the Climate, that globally 2012 was among the 10 warmest years on record. However temperature was just the tip of the melting iceberg.

“Many of the events that made 2012 such an interesting year are part of the long-term trends we see in a changing and varying climate—carbon levels are climbing, sea levels are rising, Arctic sea ice is melting, and our planet as a whole is becoming a warmer place,” said Acting NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan in a statement summarizing the peer-reviewed report.

Arctic changes, including temperature increases and increased ice melt, were the most marked exhibitors of climate change and were highlighted in the federal study, released online by the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

“Conditions in the Arctic were a major story of 2012, with the region experiencing unprecedented change and breaking several records,” NOAA said in its statement. “Sea ice shrank to its smallest summer-minimum extent since satellite records began 34 years ago. In addition, more than 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet showed some form of melt during the summer, four times greater than the 1981-2010 average melt extent.”

Oceans’ heat content stayed at its record high in the upper half-mile of depth, with marked temperature increases below that, at 2,300 to 6,600 feet, NOAA said. Although temperatures per se have not warmed significantly over the past 10 years, there have been “remarkable changes in key climate indicators” such as dramatically rising ocean heat content, record summer Arctic sea ice melt and the melting of nearly the entire top layer of Greenland’s ice sheet last summer, said Tom Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, to the Associated Press. Sea level was also at record highs.

“It’s critically important to compile a big picture,” Karl told the news wire. “The signs that we see are of a warming world.”

These conditions and trends played out most strongly in the Arctic, which is manifesting the most dramatic symptoms of climate change, NOAA said.

Polarity in the saline content of water was also noted, with high-evaporation areas containing saltier waters and low-evaporation regions showing more fresh water, NOAA said. This suggests that “precipitation is increasing in already rainy areas and evaporation is intensifying in drier locations,” NOAA said.

Although La Niña helped keep ocean levels down during the first half of 2011, NOAA reported, they “rebounded to reach record highs in 2012,” with global sea levels increasing on average 3.2 millimeters per year over the past two decades.

Likewise, greenhouse gas concentrations, the main ones being carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, continued their increase in 2012, NOAA said. The global economic downturn actually reduced manmade emissions slightly, NOAA said, but 2011 emissions were at a record high, with CO2 in particular surpassing the 400 parts per million mark in at monitoring stations in the Arctic.

NOAA officials emphasized that they were not interpreting the data, merely passing it on, letting the facts speak for themselves.

“This report does not try to explain why we are seeing what we are seeing,” Karl told The Wall Street Journal. “The report is focused only on what the observations are telling us.”