Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Another sign that things are changing… Here in Phoenix, we had a very mild winter, for native Phoenicians they would have said it was cold, but I really don’t consider days with high temperatures the low 60° range cold. It was even nice up until the end of June but that’s where the story turns, we are now on our 13^th day over 110°F and there is no end in sight.

50 years ago, the longest stretch of days in Phoenix that reached 110°or more was 18 days… in 2020 we had 53 days that reached or exceeded that mark.

I talked briefly in a prior post that the global average temperature reached 62.9°F. Global average surface temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.17°F per decade since 1901, similar to the rate of warming within the contiguous 48 states. Since the late 1970s, however, the United States has warmed faster than the global rate. Over the last century, the average surface temperature of the Earth has increased by about 1.0^o F. The eleven warmest years this century have all occurred since 1980, with 1995 the warmest on record. The higher latitudes have warmed more than the equatorial regions. Global temperature is projected to warm by about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7° degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050 and 2-4 degrees Celsius (3.6-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.

The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions, and an increase in the wind intensity and rainfall from tropical cyclones. Scientists have predicted that long-term effects of climate change will include a decrease in sea ice and an increase in permafrost thawing, an increase in heat waves and heavy precipitation, and decreased water resources in semi-arid regions Scientist hypothesize   that humans would suffer and, for the most part, adapt and survive. Not so the millions of species with which we share the planet. Under likely warming scenarios, virtually all the globe’s coral reef, which feed and otherwise benefit a billion people, will be gone.

The question is it too late? I know the one out of a vast majority of climate scientists will argue that mankind has nothing to do with the current extreme changes in our climate, but I am choosing to not listen to that clown. Have we pushed ourselves into a negative feed back loop, that no matter what we do has the damage been done? That is the question for the day…

I will leave that question to climatologists….

Hope I didn’t scare anyone too much. No, I hope I did!!

https://www.space.com/climate-tipping-points-closer-than-realized