“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” Mark Twain.
THE FACTS:
Seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean. That’s a lot of dam water. In July, the average ocean surface temperature outside of the polar regions was recorded at 21.2C (70˚ F). Ryan Katz-Rosene, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Ottawa, put that in perspective when he said that this new record could be the high “for the entire Holocene period, possibly the last 125,000 years.” The Holocene period is the current geologic epoch, roughly the last 12,000 years after the last major ice age.
The western United States is suffering this year in the worst drought in record keeping. Europe’s major rivers, the Rhine and Danube, are experiencing record low flows (and their records go way back). The Colorado River is on schedule to have its lowest flow in record keeping. NOAA announced that this July was tied for the hottest July on record. Western Europe recorded the warmest June-July on record.
The hottest ten years in global temperature record keeping have been the last ten years. Since 2000, the Southwestern US has seen the hottest twenty-five years in history, and the driest twenty-six years out of the last 1,200 years.
The arctic is experiencing some of the highest July temperatures in history. Daily high temperatures reached 95˚F in Siberia and the European arctic. Glacial loss has transformed the Alps and Himalayas. This week’s horrific apparent glacial collapse that triggered the Nepal-Tibet flood that has taken thousands of lives is believed to been caused by rapid loss and failure of glacial ice.
Nearly uniform predictions are that El Niῇo is on schedule to be the strongest of record. Ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific have reached 2.7C (4.86˚F) above normal. The amount of heat (energy) required to raise the surface temperature of over 2.5 million square miles of ocean is hard to fathom. And that added energy has to go somewhere.
These are all facts. Facts are pesky. You can’t argue with them (that’s why they’re called facts). To deny them is to place oneself in the category of those that believe the Earth is flat, that the Covid vaccine has a tracking chip in it (our phones do that), that airplane exhaust leaves chemtrails, and that aliens walk among us.
Now the good news. In 2021, renewables surpassed nuclear in electrical production. Renewables surpassed coal in 2025, and are scheduled to surpass natural gas by next summer. There are always those that cling to the past; some of the nation’s leaders (the US claims that title alone) openly war against renewables, but they’re ineffective and they will be left in the dust. The writing’s on the wall. The people, business, and free-market system know better. That’s why renewable energy growth is expected to average 11% annually this year and battery storage is projected to increase by 44% this year. US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Connecting the dots has never been easier and it’s why while I may be pessimistic as to the climate, I’m optimistic that we will continue in the right direction, despite the junk you find in the news. Speaking of which, with all of the cluster in Washington, maybe it’s understandable to believe in that theory about aliens that walk among us.