Yves here. Thomas Neuburger discusses a new report by James Hansen on the fact that global warming is accelerating. Not a pretty picture.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
We anticipate acceleration of the long-term global warming rate by at least 50%, i.e., to at least 0.27°C/decade.
—James Hansen, “Oh-Oh. Now What?”
Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
—Jonathan Coulton, here
James Hansen has a new piece called “Oh-Oh. Now What?” I’d like to bring you some of its highlights, or lowlights, since there’s not much highness in it. The whole thing is fairly short, but I want to summarize its key points (all emphasis below is mine).
Three metrics are mentioned in the piece:
- The rate of increase in global warming
- EEI (Earth’s energy imbalance) — the difference between energy in and energy out of the Earth climate system
- Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) — a measure of Earth’s responsiveness to change in atmospheric CO2
Accelerating Temperature Increase
About global temperature itself, Hansen writes:
[T]he 12-month mean global temperature likely will pierce the 1.5°C warming level before this time next year.
About the rate of increase in global temperature, he says this:
Global warming between 1970 and 2010 was 0.18°C/decade (Fig. 2), but the rate increased to 0.24°C/decade between [1997 and 2016]. … We anticipate acceleration of the long-term global warming rate by at least 50%, i.e., to at least 0.27°C/decade.