Thursday, while the nation debated the relative size of Republican genitalia, something truly awful happened. Across the northern hemisphere, the temperature, if only for a few hours, apparently crossed a line: it was more than two degrees Celsius above “normal” for the first time in recorded history and likely for the first time in the course of human civilization. That’s important because the governments of the world have set two degrees Celsius as the must-not-cross red line that, theoretically, we’re doing all we can to avoid. And it’s important because most of the hemisphere has not really had a winter. They’ve been trucking snow into Anchorage for the start of the Iditarod; and Arctic sea ice is at record low levels for the date.
The future is clearly coming much faster than science had expected. February, taken as a whole, crushed all the old monthly temperature records, which had been set in … January. January crushed all the old monthly temperature records, which had been set in … December.
Bigger storms: The highest wind speeds ever measured came last month when Tropical Cyclone Winston crashed into Fiji. Entire villages were flattened. In financial terms, the storm wiped out ten percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, roughly equivalent to fifteen simultaneous Hurricane Katrina’s.
This was followed by the highest wind speeds ever recorded in our hemisphere, when Patricia crashed into the Pacific coast of Mexico.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/03/04/why-degree-temperature-jump-more-important-than-trump-hands/lCyz5MHZkH8aD0HIDJrcYJ/story.html
We have to do something. I hope and pray that Obama appoints an environmentalist to the Supreme Court who will reverse the court's decision to scuttle the EPA's Clean Air Act that is our only hope. Otherwise the earth is doomed.
