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2016 Set a New Milestone for Global Warming

January 18, 2017

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January 18, 2017 – “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”

This quote comes from Ramez Naam‘s book, The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet. I thought of this as I read the latest findings by Earth scientists as reported in today’s New York Times.

Our ancestors experienced a more predictable world when it comes to global temperatures. Our children who will inherit the world we create will live on a changing planet with an uncertain future. Based on the latest global warming data Earth has recorded higher temperatures, each a record, for the last three years. As the Times states, “The data show that politicians cannot wish the problem away. The Earth is heating up, a point long beyond serious scientific dispute, but one becoming more evident as the records keep falling. Temperatures are heading toward levels that many experts believe will pose a profound threat to both the natural world and to human civilization.”

This scatter diagram shows world temperatures from 1880 to the end of 2016. The caption from the NY Times reads, “In the historical record, months early in the year, like February and March, have moved further away from the norm than the rest of the year. Scientists expect that the early months of 2017 will continue to show levels of warming beyond the norm.”

In 2015 those who questioned the data ascribed the warming to an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean. But in 2016 there was no El Nino. Temperatures just continued to inch upward over most of the planet. In the Arctic, however, temperatures soared. Sea ice reached the lowest level observed since records have been kept. The American east coast experienced increased incidents of tidal flooding caused by ocean thermal expansion and the melting of Arctic sea ice and glaciers. And in one city in India, on one summer day the thermometer rose to 51 Celsius (123.8 Fahrenheit), a temperature never seen before.

The data on 2016 temperature records was issued by two United States organizations, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA. The findings represent global data collection, that for the former, goes back to 1880, and for the latter, the 1970s, with the launch of the first generation of geostationary weather satellites.

The new American administration under President-elect Donald Trump, has appointed cabinet secretaries who, like their boss, is a climate change denier. I suspect that NOAA and NASA will be redirected in focus to not report global warming statistics. After all, the ostrich with its head buried in the sand never sees what is going on in its immediate surroundings, not until a predator comes and bites its tail or kills it.

Our children deserve better than this.