The following post was originally published on the Climate Reality site. As a Climate Reality leader (Chicago2013), I’m pleased to feature Climate Reality resources on BoomerWarrior. The article shows how freakish global warming is now the new norm. (Rolly Montpellier~Managing Editor).
Freakish global warming
New data from NASA shows that yet again, the planet had a record-warm month. September set a record with temperatures 1.6°F (0.91°C) above normal, besting the previous mark set in September 2014. It’s the latest in a run of months — and years — where freakish global [warming] has become the norm.
To say there’s never been a stretch like this may sound like stating the obvious, but let’s recap for the heck of it.
The September mark comes a month after the world tied the record for the hottest month ever recorded in August (the month it tied was this July). As early as May, there was a 99 percent chance that 2016 was going to go down as the hottest year on record, besting 2015, which bested 2014, because the planet has been on a heat bender since last year.
With September’s record, the odds crept a little higher still. NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said on Twitter that 2016 “seems locked in” to set a record for hottest year with it likely to end somewhere around 2.25°F (1.25°C) above the late 19th century average.
With data now available through September, 2016 annual record (~1.25ºC above late 19th C) seems locked in. pic.twitter.com/Btp3Vutakn
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) October 17, 2016
The global average temperature will stop setting records at some point, but that’s besides the point. The past 12 months has been a long string of exclamation points at the end of a sentence that reads the world has been warming since the late nineteenth century due in large part to human carbon pollution.
According to NASA, 11 of the past 12 months have been record warm (for perspective, the last record-cold month was December 1916). The one exception is June; which NASA had previously declared record warm but updated on Monday to “only” third warmest after scientists received new data from Antarctica.
It should be noted that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the other gold standards for global temperature analysis, says the world has had 16 straight months of record heat (itself a record).
Of those 12 months, seven of them have been more than 1°C above average. Prior to that, no months passed that threshold in 136 years of record keeping.
In addition to the hottest months ever recorded, the recent stretch of heat includes February, which was the most abnormally warm month on record. Temperatures were 2.4°F (1.34°C) above normal. That’s the closest the world has come to the 1.5°C threshold, which is viewed as an important threshold for the continued existence of a number of small island states.
Are you tired of hearing about a new broken record every month? One of the best things we can do to fight climate change is to support leaders who are making climate solutions a top priority – because even though this is starting to feel like the new normal, it’s just not normal.
Sign the pledge now and help build a better, brighter future.
“The global average temperature will stop setting records at some point”. Sure it will, but what will it be? 1.2? 1.8? 8C? We don’t really know. It’s expected to settle around 1.25 I heard somewhere, but for how long? It’s not likely but it could be we are on the verge of an exponential run with temperature, WE DON’T KNOW. By next year we could be at 2.5C. WE DON’T KNOW.
So the point is we don’t know what’s gonna happen with these temperatures because we’ve never been here before. So given this uncertainty we have to think in terms of risk, how risky is it to continue emitting CO2 while temperatures are rising so fast? That should be a no brainer, but it’s not. We should be shutting down industry of all kinds as fast as we can, but we’re not. We should be on fundamental rations, but we’re not. Instead, we are taking the risk that the temperature will settle at a place we like and so we can continue our mad cycle of production and consumption. We truly are lost in our thinking Not good.
I see no evidence of the world order deciding on slowing down industrial and economic development. It’s simply out of control. End of story.
October will likely be hotter too… I arrived in Spain last week to find temperatures still reaching a high of 40°C..pretty darn hot for late October. Who knows where it will end while government an business twiddles ‘its thumbs.’
I will be going to Spain next spring.