Posted on Dec 18, 2020
2020 May Be The Hottest Year On Record. Here's The Damage It Did
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With just a few weeks left, 2020 is in a dead-heat tie for the hottest year on record. But whether it claims the top spot misses the point, climate scientists say. There is no shortage of disquieting statistics about what is happening to the Earth.
The hottest decade on record is coming to a close, with the last five years being the hottest since 1880. 2020 is just two-hundredths of a degree cooler than 2016, the hottest year ever recorded. The Earth is nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than it was in the 20th century, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are still rising.
The future will be even hotter, although humans, through the choices governments, corporations and individuals make, will decide exactly how much.
That means more years like 2020, with increasingly powerful hurricanes, more intense wildfires, less ice and longer heat waves. The average yearly number of $1 billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. has quadrupled in the last three decades. As of October 2020, there had been 16 climate-driven disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage each.
The hottest decade on record is coming to a close, with the last five years being the hottest since 1880. 2020 is just two-hundredths of a degree cooler than 2016, the hottest year ever recorded. The Earth is nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than it was in the 20th century, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are still rising.
The future will be even hotter, although humans, through the choices governments, corporations and individuals make, will decide exactly how much.
That means more years like 2020, with increasingly powerful hurricanes, more intense wildfires, less ice and longer heat waves. The average yearly number of $1 billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. has quadrupled in the last three decades. As of October 2020, there had been 16 climate-driven disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage each.
2020 May Be The Hottest Year On Record. Here's The Damage It Did
Posted from npr.org
Climate Change
Science
Phoenix
Arctic Ocean
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 4
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I am not ready to believe that the Earth's temperature has fluctuated that much, that it is worrisome, as there have been Ice Ages and Heat Ages for many thousands of years, perhaps millions... There is, however, things that we can do on Earth to mitigate short term trends...,but it doesn't depend on the United States alone... We are far better than the rest of the world in conserving energy and improving the reduction in CO2 emissions and more... The rest of the world must do their part as well... Just thinking...
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
We were attempting to lead and train the world through participation in the Paris Climate Change Agreement. That fell by the wayside and even if we rejoin not sure our influence is going to mean much for a while.
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Sgt (Join to see)
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Yet the world powers will want the United States to fund a big majority of the cost of programs...I fear...
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PO1 Steven Bridge
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Sir, I've tried to follow the pros and cons of the Paris Climate Accord. It seemed to be honestly a joke - targeting the US as 'bad boys' who must sacrifice at ridiculous levels while countries like China (really? 'China'?) are given literally, a free pass - absolute, 100% free pass. IF a person (or country) were interested in cleaning up the world's climate concerns, this was not the vehicle to accomplish that. It appears to be nothing more than a high-visibility act that actually had no net change, except to punish the USA.
Hmmm... an example: Fossil fuel production. We would have been heavily penalized for producing fossil fuels by the ridiculous levels of regulatory bureaucratic non-sense. So we would have to get our energy elsewhere, even though our methods are much cleaner already than anyone else's. Yet we would have to purchase energy from countries who either laugh at the Paris Climate Accord or are given a free pass, and who have the worst environmental records for producing said fossil fuels and would pollute the atmosphere at much, much higher levels than us.... IF the 'climate' were based on national, geographic boundaries (like the border between the US and Canada) then sure, it could work... but the world's climate doesn't really respect those boundaries. So why allow a country like China to produce fossil fuels in a damaging way, while restricting us?
Sir, it was a joke from the start.
Hmmm... an example: Fossil fuel production. We would have been heavily penalized for producing fossil fuels by the ridiculous levels of regulatory bureaucratic non-sense. So we would have to get our energy elsewhere, even though our methods are much cleaner already than anyone else's. Yet we would have to purchase energy from countries who either laugh at the Paris Climate Accord or are given a free pass, and who have the worst environmental records for producing said fossil fuels and would pollute the atmosphere at much, much higher levels than us.... IF the 'climate' were based on national, geographic boundaries (like the border between the US and Canada) then sure, it could work... but the world's climate doesn't really respect those boundaries. So why allow a country like China to produce fossil fuels in a damaging way, while restricting us?
Sir, it was a joke from the start.
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Some of what you said is true, and I expect the global average mean temp will continue to increase. Lots of things have been lumped in without evidence, however. Hurricanes for example. Both the number of US hurricanes per decade and their strengths have been BELOW average for the past 60 years. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml
U.S. Hurricane Strikes by Decade
NWS All NOAA
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I think most of us who have been deployed to other countries that don't have the Western standards of living can see the relationship between man and his effects on the environment. Yes nature has normal cycles but man's influence must be studied and not laughed off as crazy.
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