Plenty of distractions in the political circus at the moment, but meanwhile:
2015 and 2016 set to break global heat records, says Met Office
Next two years likely to be hottest recorded as the world’s climate reaches major turning point…
The world’s climate has reached a major turning point and is set to deliver record-breaking global temperatures in 2015 and 2016, according to a new report from the UK Met Office.
Natural climate cycles in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are reversing and will amplify the strong manmade-driven global warming, the report concludes. This will change weather patterns around the world including more heatwaves … “We will look back on this period as an important turning point,” said Professor Adam Scaife, who led the Met Office analysis. “That is why we are emphasising it, because there are so many big changes happening at once. This year and next year are likely to be at, or near, record levels of warming.”
The record for the hottest year was broken in 2014, when heatwaves scorched China, Russia, Australia and parts of South America. But, despite rising greenhouse gas emissions continuing to trap more heat on Earth, the last decade has seen relatively slow warming of air temperatures, dubbed a “pause” in climate change by some.
In fact, global warming had not paused at all. Instead, natural climate cycles led to more of the trapped heat being stored in the oceans. Now, according to the Met Office report, all the signs are that the pause in rising air temperatures is over and the rate of global warming will accelerate fast in coming years.
The warning comes ahead of a crunch UN summit in Paris in November at which the world’s nations must hammer out a deal to halt climate change. …
Consistent with the sort of “leadership” we have come to expect from Key, apparently we are doing our bit and: “Close the lights down on NZ and it wouldn’t make a difference”. If it doesn’t affect us in “the next year or two” it doesn’t matter. Makes one proud to be a Kiwi:
Clean, green NZ falls behind Australia on climate change
Even the carbon tax-scrapping Australians will do more than New Zealand to address climate change…
Newly released figures on nine countries and regions show New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pledges are the second weakest. Only Canada will take a less ambitious goal to the United Nations December climate change conference in Paris, according to a table by independent think-tank The Climate Institute.
Brilliant.
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