时间:2025-04-03 14:36:40 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
Climate 101 is a Mashable series that answers provoking and salient questions about Earth’s wa
Climate 101 is a Mashable series that answers provoking and salient questions about Earth’s warming climate.
Top U.S. earth scientists announced Thursday that 2021 was among the hottest years on record.
Specifically, the average global surface temperature was the sixth warmest, according to both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), making the last eight years the eight warmest in over 140 years of reliable record-keeping. Temperatures in 2021 were nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1.1 Celsius) hotter than average temperatures in the late 19th century. Crucially, however, climate scientists emphasize it's the long-term temperature trend that really matters and best illustrates how global surface temperatures are changing, rather than what occurs during a particular year or group of years.
And the decades-long trend is unambiguous. Temperatures have been on an upward trajectory for nearly half a century.
"It is the long-term effects on climate that we're really worried about," Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and researcher at the environmental science organization Berkeley Earth, told Mashable. "It is crystal clear that temperatures are going up, and they're going up quickly."
(Matching NASA and NOAA's temperature analysis, Berkeley Earth also independently found that 2021 was the sixth warmest on record.)
Tweet may have been deleted
Amid the rising global temperature trend there are small bumps, like little peaks and valleys. This is due to recurring, short-term climate patterns impacting the larger warming signal. The most influential of the patterns occur in the sprawling Pacific Ocean, which can see year-to-year periods of sea surface warming (El Niño) or cooling (La Niña). This temporarily pushes overall global temperatures up or down. That's why the decades-long story is crucial to watch. It cuts through the noise.
"It is crystal clear that temperatures are going up, and they're going up quickly."
"We live on a dynamic planet with lots of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual fluctuations," emphasized Sarah Green, an environmental chemist at Michigan Technological University who had no involvement with the 2021 climate reports. "If you're looking for long-term changes, you have to average over the long term."
"The focus on short-term variability is not really helpful," agreed Hausfather.
In 2021, La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean had a cooling effect on Earth. But even so, the human impact on our climate remains outsized. To illustrate, 2021 makes 1998 look like an unusually cool year. But 1998 was "crazy warm" at the time, noted Hausfather, as the warming trend was enhanced by a potent El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean.
Tweet may have been deleted
Today's relentlessly rising temperatures are no surprise. Large-scale human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels refined from ancient, carbon-rich, decomposed creatures, have driven momentous changes in the atmosphere. For example, levels of the most important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, are now the highest they've been in some 3 million years, and are still rising. Each passing year, humanity emits prodigious amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
With current carbon-cutting commitments from global nations, the world is on track to warm by some 2.7 C (nearly 5 F), which would have extreme, disastrous environmental consequences. Already, the consequences of warming are serious. For example:
Extreme fires:Increased temperatures and dryness parch vegetation and allow wildfires to burn more rapidly, significantly contributing to unnatural infernosand extreme urban firestorms. ("It takes just a little bit of warming to lead to a lot more burning.")
Severe deluges: A warmer climate allows the atmosphere to hold more water. This boosts the odds for more severe and record-breaking deluges.
Destabilized ice sheets: Warmer ocean waters have destabilized the Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier. It's receding back; if it collapses it can ultimately raise sea levels in the coming centuries by many feet.
Ocean heating: The ocean absorbs over 90 percent of the heat humanity traps on Earth. That's a nearly unfathomable number. This portends continued sea level rise, great disruptions to animal life, and beyond. Ocean heat hit a record high in 2021.
More vector-borne disease: As the climate warms, creatures that infect us with pathogens (vectors like mosquitoes and ticks) spread.
Tweet may have been deleted
The impacts of climate change will only grow until nations drop carbon emissions to around zero. But with each passing year, efforts to limit warming to some 2 C (3.6 F) above 19th-century levels grow more daunting. The big solutions, however, like the vast expansion of powerful ocean wind farmsand electric vehicle adoption, are well-known.
"The more you delay, the harder it is," said Green.
Dressage horse dancing to 'Smooth' by Santana wins gold for chillest horse2025-04-03 14:31
夢幻開局!鄭錚世界波破門 山東泰山暫12025-04-03 14:24
亞泰4外援亮劍拚下第9勝 中超黑馬有望一黑到底 ?2025-04-03 14:09
隊長回家三分留下 三年後傑拉德正式接班克洛普 ?2025-04-03 13:37
This chart shows just how high Simone Biles can jump2025-04-03 13:15
火力全開!徐新助攻劉洋破門 山東泰山暫22025-04-03 13:08
傑拉德嗆歐文 :討厭回安菲爾德 ? 那是因你效力曼聯2025-04-03 12:50
念念不忘 !尤文已放棄引進卡瓦尼 冬窗強攻伊卡爾迪2025-04-03 12:49
Despite IOC ban, Rio crowds get their political messages across2025-04-03 12:34
硬氣 !朗尼克回應馬夏爾經紀人:想走人就來跟我說2025-04-03 12:28
Ivanka Trump's unpaid interns share cringeworthy financial advice2025-04-03 13:51
大連人vs河南嵩山龍門首發 :丹尼爾森PK多拉多2025-04-03 13:39
快進國家隊!戴偉浚領球過人一氣嗬成(gif)2025-04-03 13:26
曝伊沃繼續效力河南可能性不大 曾是國足歸化熱門目標2025-04-03 13:04
There's a big piece of fake chicken stuck to this phone case2025-04-03 12:56
比利奇 :在球隊經濟困難的情況下 對球員的職業精神點讚2025-04-03 12:48
京媒 :京粵大戰變了味 雙方現階段都不具備爭冠軍的能力2025-04-03 12:32
拜仁VS薩爾茨堡解簽:南大王迎上上簽 準德甲內戰2025-04-03 12:14
Major earthquake and multiple aftershocks rock central Italy2025-04-03 12:01
雙線12連勝+競爭對手掉隊 泰山隊有望重溫雙冠王2025-04-03 11:51