They say "open with a joke" so here's one:
Global warming isn't real because I was cold today! Also great news: World hunger is over because I just ate.
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) November 19, 2014
Yes, I know it's freezing in Texas (but I hear it's lovely in Cancun) but that's local weather. And it's localized in the American midwest. For the global climate there's a different story to tell.
From the scientists at NOAA:
The January 2021 global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.80°C (1.44°F) above the 20th century average and ranked as the seventh warmest January in the 142-year global records. January 2021 also marked the 45th consecutive January and the 433rd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.Here's a chart:
The y-axis is temperature and the x-axis is time. We're now tucked in at the very right hand column on that chart. Notice the upward trend of the maroon bars. Know what that means?
The planet's warming up. Has been for decades. The science says so.
The message finally has a found a place in the Oval Office. As can be seen in the two desperately different responses from two desperately different Presidents.
From the current President:
The United States and the world face a profound climate crisis. We have a narrow moment to pursue action at home and abroad in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of that crisis and to seize the opportunity that tackling climate change presents. Domestic action must go hand in hand with United States international leadership, aimed at significantly enhancing global action. Together, we must listen to science and meet the moment.
And from the former:
Trump traveled to Northern California to be briefed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and federal officials. At one point, state Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot urged the president to “recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forests.”
“If we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed together protecting Californians,” Crowfoot added.
Trump responded, “It will start getting cooler, just you watch.”
Crowfoot politely pushed back that he wished the science agreed with the president. Trump countered, “I don’t think science knows, actually.”
Trump is wrong. The planet is warming up. Has been for decades. The science says so.
