The Earth has set another all-time record. Unfortunately, it’s not a record we wanted to set. For the third year in a row, we have had the hottest year in history. That means that the global temperature in 2016 beat the current record from 2015 which beat the old record from 2014. This terrifying trend has scientists on edge and should be alarming for every resident of the earth.
What’s happening around the world?
The rising temperature of the earth can be felt around the world. This fall across the Arctic, temperatures were 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, contributing to even further melting of the polar ice and rising sea levels. These rising sea levels have contributed to the increased tidal flooding seen in many coastal cities in the United States this year. Gavin A. Schmidt, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, calls this year’s Arctic temperatures “...ridiculously off the charts.” Other areas of the earth felt the heat as well. 2016 saw many cases of drought and starvation across Africa and the town of Phalodi recorded the hottest day in India’s history at 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
Researchers admit that 2015 and 2016 may have been especially warm mainly due to El Nino. However, El Nino alone is not fully to blame for the long term climate change and rising temperatures. Scientists are almost unanimous in stating that these long term patterns are due to carbon emissions and man made global warming. Now that El Nino has ended, scientists expect 2017 to be cooler but the long term pattern of rising temperatures is expected to persist.
The records for 2016
On January 18, three separate agencies released their findings that the earth had hit a new record high temperature. These agencies looked at records from various sources including ships, buoys, satellites and weather stations. NASA, one of the agencies that released these findings, reported the greatest difference between 2015’s annual temperature and 2016’s annual temperature. Many scientists believe NASA’s data is the most accurate as they fully analyze Arctic temperatures, which some other agencies do not include. NASA reports that from 2013 to 2016 the earth’s temperature rose by ½ degree Fahrenheit, which is the largest three year rise since NASA began collecting data in 1880.
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was another agency that confirmed 2016 as the hottest year on record. The only other time in NOAA history when record temperatures were beat three years in a row was 1939, 1940 and 1941. But since the recent era of global warming began in the 1970s, 1941 is now only the 37th hottest year on record. Of the 17 hottest years in history, 16 have occurred from 2000 to 2016.
Where Trump fits in
Given these drastic findings, it’s scary to think that anyone could be skeptical that climate change and global warming are occurring, especially when they are in a position of political power. And yet, Trump continues to doubt the existence of climate change. He has employed a number of known climate change deniers to his cabinet. Both NASA and NOAA report their findings to the White House. Many researchers are fearful that Trump and his team may manipulate the data in order to fit their own unfounded beliefs and outdated politics.
Since his election, Trump has promised to keep an open mind about climate change, which is a large step from his previous position that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. It seems that even climate change’s most outspoken deniers are unable to stand their ground against the alarming facts and figures proving the existence of long term climate change patterns. Let’s just hope it’s not too late to recover from these patterns.