Silke Jasso
If you’ve been watching the news, you may have heard that 2016 was the warmest year on record. Don’t be too alarmed though: the record only goes back to 1880.
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According to NASA, temperatures in 2016 were 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean. This is the third straight record high temperature year.
NASA believes that this is the continuation of a long-term trend. “2016 is remarkably the third record year in a row in this series,” Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Director Gavin Schmidt said in a press release. “We don’t expect record years every year, but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear.”
NASA blames the warming trend on man-made climate change caused by the release of carbon dioxide and other emissions into the atmosphere. Scientists believe carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” create a greenhouse effect that traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, warming the planet.
But NASA did not address whether or not the planet was warming as much as climate change prediction models said it would. And no wonder, because the warming is only half as much as predicted, and some of that can be attributed to last year’s strong El Niño.
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Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather compared the global average temperature record to climate model predictions:
Updated climate model-observation comparisons, now through the end of 2016: pic.twitter.com/GnM6CHwNzV
— Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath) January 18, 2017
Climate models have consistently over-predicted global warming over longer periods:
@PCKnappenberger Here are model/obs trend comparisons for 36, 26, and 16 years: pic.twitter.com/WhWKkB7V9d
— Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath) January 18, 2017
El Niño is not expected to be as big a factor in 2017 as it was in 2016, so that should lead to a reduction in global temperatures. In fact, temperatures are expected to rise even less against the model predictions in coming years.
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There is other evidence that the “climate crisis” is not as severe as global warming alarmists make it out to be. Carbon dioxide levels have not risen for three years, even though they’re supposed to be the leading culprit in man-made climate change.
Something to consider the next time you hear someone panicking about the “warmest year on record.”
