According to the United Nations weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, on Monday, 2016 will be our hottest year on record.
“It is very likely,” says the WMO, “that 2016 will be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures even higher than the record-breaking temperatures in 2015. Preliminary data shows that 2016’s global temperatures are approximately 1.2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
And this news comes at a time when Greenpeace USA is tweeting that “The GOP already has a radical environmental agenda. Alongside Trump, their impact could be devastating.”
This was Donald Trump tweeting in November 2012:
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
However, the numbers are not a hoax, as the WMO reveals:
“Long-term climate change indicators are also record breaking. Concentrations of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase to new records. Arctic sea ice remained at very low levels, especially during early 2016 and the October re-freezing period, and there was significant and very early melting of the Greenland ice sheet.”
If the projection is accurate, states the WMO, what this means is, “that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century (1998 was the other one).”
Watch courtesy of the WMO:
The WMO had previously released a report on the period from 2011 to 2015, which it called “the hottest five-year period on record.” According to the WMO,
The record temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines in Arctic sea-ice extent, continental glaciers and northern hemisphere snow cover.
All these climate change indicators confirmed the long-term warming trend caused by greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide reached the significant milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere for the first time in 2015, according to the WMO report which was submitted to U.N. climate change conference.
If anyone is doubting what is taking place on our Earth, the facts are indisputable:
Anthropogenic Global Warming is real says NASA:
“Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals1 show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”
Trump claims “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” but the calculus is unforgiving: nobody will be very competitive if the planet gets much hotter.
Donald Trump can say global warming is a Chinese plot. Republicans can deny it is happening at all, but facts are facts whether you accept them or not, and what you don’t know can hurt you.
We’re looking at you, President-Elect Trump.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.