New research suggests that with the present approach, global warming will exceed 1.5°C in the 2020s and 2°C before 2050. But it is never too late to fight, argues Alex Bainbridge.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
King tides and climate change have become survival issues for the world’s coastal cities, writes Rob Pyne.
Last year was by far the hottest year in the observation record, with the global average surface temperature 1.24° Celcuis warmer than the late nineteenth century, according to NASA data. This broke the record set the previous year of 1.12°C, which in turn broke the previous mark set in 2014 of 1.01°C.
Although the El Nino conditions of 2015–16 had some influence — perhaps 0.2°C — it is clear that the warming trend is 1°C or more.
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has taken the unusual step of personally telling Senator Malcolm Roberts he was "mistaken" in his claim that the agency had falsified key data to exaggerate warming in the Arctic. He expressed surprise that Roberts had actually been elected as a Senator.