Wednesday 31 July 2019

Ten hottest years have occurred since 2002

The Times today reports

Ten hottest years have occurred since 2002

and quoting the Met Office says:
The top ten hottest years are (in order from the hottest): 2014; 2006; 2011; 2007; 2017; 2003; 2018; 2004; 2002 and 2005. The coldest years in the record are: 1892 (the coldest); 1888; 1885; 1963; 1919; 1886; 1917; 1909; 1887 and 1962.

Depressingly many climate deniers posted comments which demonstrated their inability to understand what is actually going on and I decided to post my view:

Remember the London Smogs? I do. They were the local result of burning coal and something was done when people started dying.  A hundred years earlier the Victorians laid pipes bring fresh water and built sewers because people were dying because of the way human excrement was just dumped into the environment. We humans are very good at creating pollution and the problem with too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is that:
(1) the effects are very slow to appear - and for the same reason will take a long time to disappear if we stop creating excess gas
(2) you can’t see carbon dioxide so it is easy to dismiss it
(3) When people start to die due to lack of food, lack of water, or high daily temperatures the areas first affected will not be the UK - so it is easy for people reading The Times to bury their head in the sand.
About 30 years ago I worked on climate change in Australia where, because large areas are already very hot and dry, the effects of global warming are more serious. There is no doubt that scientific research is genuinely highlighting the dangers and I am sad when I read the ill-informed comments of those who try to deny what is increasingly obvious to those who study what is happening in detail.