The subjective answer to such a question (raised by a Facebook friend) is almost certainly “No.” Of course, there is the possibility that almost anything can be overdone. But, at this time in our climate history and current state of the planet, the evidence is overwhelming that global warming is accelerating and the stories are not overdone. In addition, by late this summer, the human-caused warming will, unfortunately, be aided and abetted by a growing El Nino, which will throw lots of extra natural heat into the mix for the next couple of years.
Despite all this evidence, there is a shrinking core of denialists who not only deny humanity’s role in the warming, but also deny that the overall warming is anything but a natural variation in Earth’s climate or, even more incredibly, deny that warming is even occurring.
With the help of the BBC, who supplied some key graphics from American and European centers of climate expertise, we can lay out the incontrovertible evidence of the warming in easily understood diagrams. Starting with the last 83 years, going back to 1940, multiple European scientific agencies have mapped out the global temperature trends over this time.
The diagram shows how far above the years in this period 2023 is running, with more heating yet to come. I recently wrote on the topic of why there is so much scientific confidence in June and July’s record temperatures being the hottest since much farther back in time than some of you might think possible to know.
In the face of this global evidence, some denialists (a very few of whom are scientists who should know better) like to bring up how some years in the 1930s brought individual daily record heat numbers that still stand today during what are often called the “dirty thirties.” The 1930s include, of course, the terrible Dust Bowl years. The problem with this myopic thinking is in its perspective. The “dirty thirties” was entirely a…
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