Most Expect Temperatures Will Get Hotter Over Next Decade

 

These charts are from a YouGov Poll -- done between June 15th and 23rd of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

It's Getting Hotter (And Humans Are To Blame For It)

The following post is by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner:

It’s hot in Texas. 

Unusually hot, even for here. Record or near-record heat in some places. In some cases, deathly hot. 

And it’s not just Texas. Extremely high temperatures stretch across the southern United States, and high temperatures are forecast to spread north and east in the coming days. 

There are also heat warnings in California for the upcoming holiday weekend — and that means a threat of wildfire. 

It’s true that summer is always hot, especially in Texas. But it’s also true, according to extensive scientific research, that something has changed. Our planet is warming, and human activity is a driving factor. No amount of denial of that reality will keep us safe. Quite the contrary. 

We have no choice but to face the truth and try to minimize the damage. 

It is infuriating to see politicians in states like Texas and Florida, which are extremely susceptible to our climate crisis, refuse to reckon with what is so apparent. Things are getting worse, and these trendlines will continue. We don’t know how bad they will get, but that doesn’t mean we are powerless.

 

First, however, we must contend with the data. And one piece that is particularly concerning is what’s happening at night. In the past, even on hot summer days, evenings frequently brought some relief as temperatures dropped. Now, that is often not the case. And scientists say it’s because of climate change. 

CNN reported on that phenomenon with regard to the current heat wave: 

Overnight temperature records are expected to far outpace daytime records this week. Around 90 afternoon high-temperature records could be broken across the South, from Texas to the Mississippi Valley and parts of Florida, according to data from the National Weather Service.

But overnight temperatures will also stay abnormally high, with potentially 180 nighttime records broken over the next seven days...

“We think it’s because as the days grow warmer, there is more moisture in the air that traps the heat,” Lisa Patel, the executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, told CNN. “During the day, that moisture reflects the heat, but at night, it traps the heat in.”

The consequence of hotter nights strikes disproportionately on the most marginalized, who might not have air conditioning or the funds to pay for the electricity to run it. Poor urban neighborhoods also tend to have fewer parks and trees, which means the asphalt bakes in the day and radiates heat overnight. Heat can kill, especially the ill and elderly. It can also disrupt sleep patterns and increase anxiety and stress. 

High temperatures might not be as visually dramatic as other natural phenomena exacerbated by climate change, like hurricanes and wildfires, but they’re just as serious. And they expose our vulnerabilities — particularly antiquated power grids not up to the task of demand spikes when people crank the air conditioning. We will need to make these systems more resilient and drastically increase the extent to which they are powered by alternative energy. Using more fossil fuels to generate electricity to contend with the heat from climate change constitutes a foolish and dangerous feedback loop. 

Thankfully, more alternative energy is taking hold, even — yes, especially — in Texas. And not a moment too soon. One major factor for why the state’s grid hasn't collapsed with this heat wave, according to reporting in The New York Times, is “an unlikely new reality in the nation’s premier oil and gas state: Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power.” The article noted that “the amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year.” Furthermore, Texas is a leading state for wind energy. 

But more will be needed, and fast. And yet Texas’s Republican state government supermajority echoes the party’s national stance of climate change denial and outright hostility to most mitigation efforts. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and we have politicians willfully steering us into the shoals. 

  

We have to adapt. Air conditioning is no longer just something that’s nice to have; it's a matter of life and death. Trees aren’t just visually appealing aspects of an urban landscape; the shade they provide is essential to public health. Where we build, how we build, and how we power ourselves all should be reexamined. 

In a warming planet, resilience requires reckoning with reality and resolving to act.

Are You Ready To Admit Global Warming Is Real Yet ?

There's no doubt that this has been an extremely hot year here in the United States. In fact, the first quarter of 2012 was the hottest first quarter ever recorded in this country. And it hasn't let up since then, but just gotten worse. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 40,000 heat records in the U.S. already broken this year. Who knows how many more will be broken before cooler weather finally arrives?

I know there are many right-wingers (and their corporate masters) who would like for Americans to think this is just an unusual year, and things will soon return to normal. But to believe that, you have to ignore the fact that 9 out of the past ten years have been the hottest years ever recorded in the United States. And that's not the only change being noted by many. Anyone who has paid attention knows that severe weather and storms have gotten more severe. And more than half of the country is either currently in drought, or is getting very close to that.

Why is this happening? The answer is obvious -- whether the people want to admit it or not. We are (as the graph above shows) burning more and more fossil fuels and dumping more carbon emissions into the atmosphere with each passing year. The nation is addicted to fossil fuels, and seems to have no desire to wean themselves off of them -- and too many politicians (of both parties) have been bought by the oil, gas, coal, and energy industries, who don't want to have to spend any of their record-breaking profits to clean up their act.

To keep those profits flowing, the fossil fuel industries have convinced many Americans that a clean-up effort for the atmosphere will raise taxes and cost jobs. It's not true, but even if it was, that would be preferable to destroying the only planet we have. They also say we cannot do it alone. That ignores the fact that many other nations were ready to act a few years ago, until this country refused to cooperate. The fact is that the U.S. burns so much fossil fuels that we must be the leader in changing. If we act, the world will follow -- and the few nations that don't will soon be shamed into doing so. But nothing will happen until the U.S. takes the lead and acts.

And this is not a problem that can be ignored for much longer. As many climate scientists have warned, we are close to the tipping point -- where any action we take will not stave off the impending disaster. It is also not something that can be quickly corrected. Here's what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says:

“About 50% of a CO2 increase will be removed from the atmosphere within 30 years, and a further 30% will be removed within a few centuries. The remaining 20% may stay in the atmosphere for many thousands of years.”

Global climate change (commonly called "global warming") is real, and it is primarily caused by human being dumping hundreds of billions of carbon emissions into the air. We still have a little time to stop the worst effects and reverse the damage already suffered, but not much time. It's time to act -- if not for ourselves, then surely for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Do we really want to be know as the generation that refused to save the world while there was still a chance?

Let Me Whine A Minute

This is just the fifth summer that I have lived in the Panhandle, and as I have told many of my friends, I really enjoy living here because of the weather -- especially the mild summers (compared to the rest of Texas). For example, as the rest of Texas roasted under a vicious sun last summer the Panhandle generally enjoyed temps in the mid-90s with little humidity. We only had one or two 100 degree days, and I loved that.

But I guess nothing lasts forever, and this year we are having a real scorcher of a summer to go along with our continuing drought. Today we had a temp of 103 degrees, and that was the 26th 100 degree day we have had this summer. That ties the record for Amarillo -- a record that was set way back in 1953. There is little doubt we will smash that record, since there is no relief in sight and about two months of summer left to go.

I have to admit I don't like this at all. I had thought I had escaped the summers full of 100 degree days. Weather like this makes me long for winter -- which usually isn't too bad in Texas (even here in the Panhandle where we can count on some snow every year). I certainly hope it's another 48 years before we have another summer like this.

Thanks for listening to me whine a bit. I just had to do it.