Climate graph of the day shows both global temperature trend and dramatic extent of unfolding 2015 global heat record

Today’s Graph of the Day shows that all those climate deniers that spoke of ‘the global temperature plateau‘ (as some weird ‘evidence’ that climate change would not be real, busted on numerous occasions) should openly admit they were wrong – as real climate scientists have explained all along. (Same goes for all the media that helped spread the deniers doubt!) Hats off to New York Times for setting a higher climate-reporting standard and creating this very illustrative graph:

Climate graph of global temperature trend and 2015 heat record
Based on NOAA data, including it’s newly released measurements of September 2015 published two days ago, New York Times has made in our view one of the world’s best climate graphs in climate-graph-writing history – clearly showing both where the global temperature trend is going – and how 2015 stands out from all the other recent hot years, including the 2010 and 2014 temperature records.

Likely the coming winter months will stand out as an even higher temperature anomaly – as the current Super El Niño has still not reached its peak.

Meanwhile extreme 2015 drought and forest fires in both Indonesia and the Amazon offer a dramatic glimpse of a future hotter world – when especially Amazon drought will become the norm and biosphere carbon feedbacks can dramatically spur global CO2 emissions – leading to ‘runaway warming’.

Add 0.1C and nature immediately adds many gigatonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere – showing carbon climate feedbacks are already a clear threat to maintaining stable temperatures

When a temperature anomaly of ~0.1 degrees Celsius (the difference between 2015 and the previous global heat record of 2014 – please note the above graph is in Fahrenheit, not Celsius) can lead to such an extreme carbon feedback response, we know we can expect a lot more feedback-induced CO2 now that world leaders are about to seal a 3.5 degrees warming deal – if at least 2030 pledges are not raised before the start of COP21, the Paris climate summit.

All in all 2015 is a very dramatic climate year. Welcome to the future.

© Rolf Schuttenhelm | www.bitsofscience.org

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