March temperature smashes 100-year global record
and
We Just Crushed The Global Record For Hottest Start Of Any Year
Under that first headline at The Guardian, Damian Carrington reports:
The global temperature in March has shattered a century-long record and by the greatest margin yet seen for any month.
February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter.
Compared to the 20th-century average, March was 1.07C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04C higher. The JMA measurements go back to 1891 and show that every one of the last 11 months has been the hottest ever recorded for that month.
Under the second headline at ClimateProgress, Joe Romm writes:
NASA reports that this was the hottest three-month start (January to March) of any year on record. It beat the previous record — just set in 2015 — by a stunning 0.7°F (0.39°C). Normally, such multi-month records are measured in the hundredths of a degree
Last month was the hottest February on record by far. It followed the hottest January on record by far, which followed the hottest December by far, which followed the hottest November on record by far, which followed the hottest October on record by far. Some may detect a pattern here.
And still, we have megatons of politicians and corporadoes who, even if most of them have finally conceded that global warming is actually happening, are unwilling to even discuss the kind of policies needed to accelerate the transformation of our energy, agriculture and transportation systems quickly enough and comprehensively enough to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.
Less than a decade ago, many of these same people claimed vociferously that climate scientists were mistaken or outright lying about the dwindling of Arctic sea ice. That climate change was merely an alarmist stance designed to impose unneeded and allegedly economy-wrecking regulations. That climate activists were watermelons, green on the outside and red on the inside, environmental Stalinists aching to steal our liberty.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to propagandize these views and smear the scientists who disagreed. As has been revealed, at least some of the sources of that money knew nearly 50 years ago what increasing the atmosphere’s carbon load would do to us.
While many of these folks have publicly retreated from some of their more outlandish claims—the sort put forth by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz who says global warming isn’t happening and that climate change is a religion pushed on us by scientists eager for lucrative research grants—too many of these powers-that-be and powers-that-wannabe continue to place obstacles in the way of policy change. They don’t deny the reality told us by climate scientists. They just reject doing anything about what we’ve been told. Or propose doing too little. That approach doesn’t get them off the hook as deniers.
Because delay is denial.