Did you dare to guess it was the hottest August ever recorded in the global temperature record? Then you win! Your prize is figuring out how to announce this and still convey the significance despite the same thing happening for quite a while now:
According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, March April May June July August 2016 was the hottest March April May June July August on record, going back 136 years. It was a staggering 1.28°C 1.11°C 0.93°C 0.79°C 0.84° 0.98° C above average across the planet.* The previous March April May June July August record, from 2010 2014 2015 2011 2014, was 0.92° 0.87° 0.86° 0.78° 0.74° 0.82° above average; the new record beats it by well over a tenth of a degree.
Let’s just briefly stroll down misinformation memory lane, where fossil fuel apologists tried to backstop their evermore hilarious talking points about the end of global warming. When last we left the adorable skeptics, they were busy as little bees retrofitting their desired conclusion onto temperature data. That’s a practice known in the rest of the reality-based community as cherry picking. The implications were delightful for well-funded naysayers. It would mean every single record high year shows that global warming has stopped—unless it precedes another record year.
Since 2015 was a record and it’s looking likely that 2016 will follow suit, back-to-back years are now afoot and the scam perpetrated by the usual suspects falls to one knee seriously wounded. But not fatally! In the years ahead there will be a stretch or two where the most recent record stands, and the Dunnings and Krugers of the world will pass on the same, tired schema as if it were new. Because wherever there is good money to be made lying to the public and to Congress, there will be professional liars lying shamelessly—for a price.