Recently, my son and I had a discussion on climate change. Admittedly, I was appalled by how unfamiliar he actually was with it. Also, how he almost seemed to shrug off the potential ramifications of it.
So I decided to illustrate just how serious this issue is. I mentioned how decades ago, when I was growing up in the eighties and even the nineties, anyone who expressed serious concern about global warming/climate change was considered an "environmental wacko. " Not only was it not believed by a majority of Americans, but I remember a lot of them literally laughing at the very idea of it.
Nobody is laughing anymore nowadays.
In fact, despite the United States still ranking as probably the most skeptical nation in the world when it comes to climate change, seventy percent recognize it as real. Unfortunately, that does not seem to get represented with what passes for our political leadership. We continually elect people who deny science instead.
Still, the fact of climate change really is not up for debate. There is a mountain of evidence to suggest that it is real, compared to a molehill of supposed counter science, which too often lacks any real picture and where information is cherry picked to side with climate change deniers. Also, a lot of that is associated with conspiracy theories, which have been running rampant in recent years and even decades now.
That said, I urged him not to simply take my word for it, but to do his own research. Then we went on Google and did some research on hottest years on record. Almost all of those listed were in the 21st century, which illustrates an alarming trend. Furthermore, record hot temperatures have been regularly set, and soon eclipsed by even hotter record temperatures within a few years. Again and again, this trend can be seen.
But I thought that maybe I should do one better. It always bothers me how so many people who really are not even familiar with the science behind climate change try to pass themselves off as experts. Again, a lot of them clearly do not understand it. A high school classmate of mine suggested to me a few years ago that unseasonably cool temperatures in Florida during the spring proved that climate change was a hoax. It reminded me of a very similar situation, when an older coworker of mine back in early 2003 told me with complete self assurance that the major snowstorm that we were experiencing "sure beats the shit out of the global warming theory. "
My own response was to urge them to actually learn about the "theory " before they so easily dismissed it. After all, the name global warming is deceptive, and lends the impression to the uninformed that the planet will simply grow warmer and warmer, without even any seasonal variation. What scientists actually warned was that weather patterns would grow more extreme, while the overall trend globally would be a warmer planet. That storms and floods and droughts would grow more extreme, and that we would experience more extreme weather overall, including (but not exclusively) hotter temperatures generally speaking. That forecast by scientists dating back decades ago has been frighteningly accurate.
Also, I told that classmate to get over himself. I guess that last part might be considered rude, but I admittedly have grown very tired of self-proclaimed experts who are convinced that they are right, yet betray their ignorance more often than not.
We are running out of time. Climate change is a fact. Even major detractors acknowledge it. I remember the Bush administration admitting that it was real, albeit reluctantly, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Exxon conducted a study of it many decades ago, and then hid the results from the public when it proved to be unfavorable to them. Both of those felt like they should have been major scandals in my opinion, with screaming, accusatory headlines for days, if not weeks. Instead, they barely made the news, and caused the smallest ripples.
So we cannot indulge nonsensical pseudoscience and climate change denial anymore. It's long past time to get serious about this, since we already are seeing the effects.
Perhaps the clearest way to get the message across is by illustrating record hot temperatures being set - and quickly eclipsed within a few years - in regions all around the planet. That should prove an undeniable trend even to most staunch skeptics.
That is what I set out to do here with a series of blog entries, beginning with this one. The first point of focus will be the arctic regions, where ice has been consistently melting now for many decades.
Let me begin:
Antarctica's Highest Temperature - February 6, 2020, during a heat wave lasting from February 5 - 13th. Temperatures on the tip of Antarctica reached 18.3°C (64.9°F).
Prior to this, the record hot temperatures for Antarctica had been set ust a few years earlier. Now the second hottest recorded temperature in Antarctica had been on 24 March 2015:
On 6 February 2020, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recognized a new high temperature record for the Antarctic continent: 18.3°C, which breaks the record from 24 March 2015 with 17.5°C.
The highest temperature ever recorded in the Antarctic region (“Antarctic region” be defined as “all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude.”) was 19.8°C, Signy Research Station, 30 January 1982
It should be pointed out that these record hot temperatures were not actually isolated, but were part of a trend. They occurred during the third of three heat waves which swept through Antarctica in the summer (southern hemisphere summer) of 2019-2020. This story might have received more notice, except that the coronavirus pandemic was quickly spreading around the world, and easily dominated news headlines of the time:
This February heatwave was the third major melt event of the 2019-2020 summer, following warm spells in November 2019 and January 2020. “If you think about this one event in February, it isn’t that significant,” said Pelto. “It’s more significant that these events are coming more frequently.“
Yet another very unusual occurrence was noted in March of 2022. This did not set new record hot temperatures, but the temperatures were nevertheless so much warmer than they normally would have been for that time of the year, that it made news headlines (this one from an article by Caitlin Kaiser and Angela Fritz of CNN published on March 28, 2023 (see link below):
The temperature at Concordia Research station atop Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau – typically known as the coldest place on Earth – surged to an astounding 11.3 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-11.5 Celsius) on March 18.
The normal high temperature for the day is around minus-56 Fahrenheit (minus-49 Celsius), which puts the March 18 reading at close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around 38 Celsius) warmer than normal.
To put that into perspective, let's read a little further along in the same article:
Concordia’s temperature was a record for the highest temperature not only in the month of March, but an “absolute record” for any month, according to Etienne Kapikian, a meteorologist at Meteo-France, the French meteorology service.
So how unusual is this? And does this serve as proof irrefutable of climate change?
Well, that's a bit more complicated.
Although it was rare, there is a possibility these atmospheric ingredients have come together before the time when humans were around to record it, John King, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, told CNN.
“The Antarctic climate observing network is quite sparse, and almost nonexistent prior to the mid-1950s,” King said.
The extreme warmth in Antarctica raises concerns about long-term effects on the ice, particularly if it persists. An ice shelf in Antarctica nearly the size of Los Angeles disintegrated within days of extraordinary warmth on the continent.
Whether or not this confirms that the effects of climate change, or global warming if you prefer, it sure seems to be worth more attention and news headlines than it has received. We probably really should be paying closer attention to these weather anomalies, and what they might mean to us.
Below are the links to the articles I used in writing this blog entry, and specifically getting the specific record hot temperatures which I found above:
Evaluating Highest Temperature Extremes in the Antarctic The record high temperature for regions south of 60°S latitude is a balmy 19.8°C (67.6°F), recorded 30 January 1982 at a research station on Signy Island. by Maria de Los Milagros Skansi, John King, Matthew A. Lazzara, Randall S. Cerveny, Jose Luis Stella, Susan Solomon, Phillip Jones, David Bromwich, James Renwick, Christopher C. Burt, Thomas C. Peterson, Manola Brunet, Fatima Driouech, Russell Vose and Daniel Krahenbuhl 1 March 2017:
https://eos.org/features/evaluating-highest-temperature-extremes-in-the-antarctic
Extraordinary Antarctica heatwave, 70 degrees above normal, would likely set a world record By Caitlin Kaiser and Angela Fritz, CNN, Mon March 28, 2022:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/weather/antarctica-world-record-high-temperature-anomaly-climate/index.html
Highest temperatures ever in the Arctic and Antarctic by Magdalena Meikl, published in 2021:
https://wilderness-society.org/highest-temperatures-ever-in-the-arctic-and-antarctic/#:~:text=On%206%20February%202020%2C%20the,over%20the%20last%2050%20years.
Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record February 4 - 13, 2020 February 4, 2020JPEG February 13, 2020
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146322/antarctica-melts-under-its-hottest-days-on-record
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