Climate Change and the Evidence behind It
By Logan Yenser
Although the topic of global warming has been talked about for decades now, it seems that only recently that the topic of global warming has been a major topic of discussion. People like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and activist Greta Thurnberg have been the among the people at the forefront of the discussion, calling for a change in the current climate change policy. But what evidence is there for climate change? There is plenty of evidence that supports the fact that climate change is very much a real thing, with 97% of climate scientists agreeing that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. Some of the evidence that supports climate change is a global temperature rise, warming oceans, and shrinking ice sheets. In this blog post, we are going to focus on the global temperature
According to NASA, the latest annual average temperature anomaly (in 2018) was 0.8 degrees celsius, which is 33.44 degrees fahrenheit. The graph below illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. 18 of the 19 warmest years all have occurred since 2001, with 2016 ranking as the warmest on record. This research is broadly consistent with similar constructions prepared by the Climatic Research Unit and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Also, the time series included in the link below shows the five-year average variation of global surface temperatures. Dark blue indicates areas cooler than average, and dark red indicates areas warmer than average.
According to NASA, the latest annual average temperature anomaly (in 2018) was 0.8 degrees celsius, which is 33.44 degrees fahrenheit. The graph below illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. 18 of the 19 warmest years all have occurred since 2001, with 2016 ranking as the warmest on record. This research is broadly consistent with similar constructions prepared by the Climatic Research Unit and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Also, the time series included in the link below shows the five-year average variation of global surface temperatures. Dark blue indicates areas cooler than average, and dark red indicates areas warmer than average.
Be careful about converting temperature units. Although 0.8 deg C equals 33.4 deg F, a change of 0.8 deg C is not the same as a change of 33.4 deg F. Otherwise, pretty good blog post.
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