Earth’s temperature has surged in the past two years, and climate scientists will soon announce that it hit a milestone in 2024: rising to more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. But is this sudden spike just a blip in the climate data, or an early indicator that the planet is heating up at a faster pace than researchers thought?
Some scientists argue that the spike can be mostly explained by two factors. One is the El Niño event that began in mid-2023 — a natural weather pattern in which warm water pools in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, often leading to hotter temperatures and more-turbulent weather. The other is a reduction over the past few years in air pollution, which can cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space and seeding low-lying clouds. Yet neither explanation fully accounts for the temperature surge, other researchers say.
Some say that the massive temperature spike might end up being a blip in the climate data, owing in large part to new regulations covering air pollution from ocean-going ships… Not everyone is convinced, however. If the pollution reduction was the primary explanation, warmer temperatures should coincide with the areas most frequented by ships… Nor do the numbers necessarily add up.
Soft paywall so see summary above. The two studies cited in the news:
- Goessling, H. F., Rackow, T. & Jung, T. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq7280 (2024). (about the El Nino effect)
- Gettelman, A. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 51, e2024GL109077 (2024). (about the reduction in ship tracks)
~1.6°C is, approximately, way hotter than scientific models would’ve told you just a few years ago. Yes we sped up climate change, but don’t worry, we haven’t even started to hit the brakes on this car, we’re still holding down the accelerator while staring at the giant wall directly ahead of us.
At least I’ll be drunk and the wall is too big to swerve around. I’ll die in the wreck v. suffocating when Earth O2 levels drop or there’s no potable water or I get cooked in extreme heat. BTW, I’m driving very fast, over 100mph already and I’m gonna crash very,very soon.
short answer: it’s complicated
No. It’s not.
“it’s complicated”
Meaning the answer is kind of making us sad so we’re not going to say it out loud.
It’s said climate scientists did not publish the worst case scenarios because it would be seen as too alarmist. These were basically civilization-ending.
It is. Being complicated doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. Cancer is complicated (very much so), yet it is very clearly bad.
Shorter answer: Yes.
Not warning or not complicated?
Not complicated.
I mean you can make anything complicated because it’s particles all the way down, but the heat spikes are because we killed the environment with big oil, cars, water waste and pollution.
People just drop dead now it’s so hot.
I generally agree with you, but your statement is political, while scientific articles should show the complexity.
We’ve had 50+ years of science about it. A big publication like Nature doesn’t need to couch a discussion about heat records as “complex” - that’s an unforced error to climate denialists.
We’re way past the point where publications should be printing very large monosyllabic words about this.
This should honestly be the main thing we talk about for at least a month but instead we are reverting climate policies.
Humans might just be too dumb to pass the great filter.
