The data are in. 2019 was the second-hottest year in modern history. (2016 was the hottest.) The last five years have been the five hottest years on record. According to Petteri Taalas, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, “On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, we are heading towards a temperature increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.” That’s of course presuming that human beings are still around in 2100.
Here is a chart from NASA showing the average global temperature from 1880 to the present. The baseline, represented by zero on the chart, is the average temperature between 1950 and 1980. (“GISTEMP” stands for the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Global Surface Temperature Analysis.)
The second figure shows that the temperature increase is not evenly distributed around the Earth, but it concentrated at the poles, particularly the Arctic.
The next chart shows the steep decline of Arctic sea ice from 1880 to the present, this time compared to a baseline of the 1981-2010 average.
Finally, this illustration shows the distribution of the 2019 temperature increase (or decrease) within the continental United States, this time compared to the 20th century average. Obviously, the problem is concentrated in the Southeastern states. (I don’t know why NASA keeps changing the baseline. Maybe they just want to keep us on our toes.)
As if to put an exclamation point on these data, last Friday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, dismissed the five year long lawsuit (Juliana v. United States) by 21 American young people intended to force the government to do something about climate change on the grounds that climate inaction was putting their constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at risk. The Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the climate, and that “the plaintiff’s case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large.” Good luck, kids.
The dissenter, District Judge Josephine Stanton, stated: “It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward the Earth and the government decided to shut down our only defenses. Seeking to quash this suit, the government bluntly insists that it has the absolute and unreviewable power to destroy the Nation.”
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