HALFWAY TO HELL AND GETTING HOTTER

Earth now halfway to UN global warming limit

29 July 2015 (New Scientist)

“…All but one of the main trackers of global surface temperature are now passing more than 1 °C of warming relative to the second half of the 19th century…[and we] could also be seeing the end of the much-discussed slowdown in surface warming since 1998, meaning this is just the start of a period of rapid warming…Last year was the hottest since records began, but only just. With an El Niño now under way – meaning warm surface waters in the Pacific are releasing heat into the atmosphere – and predicted to intensify, it looks as if the global average surface temperature could jump by around 0.1 °C in just one year…The UN negotiations on climate change aim to limit warming to 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures…[I]f climate talks do not lead to drastic action, we could pass the 2 °C mark around the middle of the century…[T]emperatures might briefly drop next year after the current El Niño ends…[but] with global emissions of greenhouse gases rising ever faster, [the planet may continue to warm at a rate more like those from 1984 to 1998, when it warmed at 0.26 °C per decade]…” click here for more

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