One Climate Expert Breaks Down The Reality Of A Rapidly Warming Planet

We’ve all heard of climate change and one of its most commonly cited traits: global warming. But as we get deeper into the cooler days of autumn, it can be easy to ignore this long-term trend on a short-term basis.

Hotter than expected

While climate scientists have long warned of global warming’s impact, recent statistics suggest the planet is actually heating up at a faster rate than previous models predicted.

NASA chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt spent much of last year struggling to explain why the global sea surface temperature rose at such a sharp rate during what should’ve been a milder El Nino climate phase.

He had a few possible explanations for an especially warm 2023, including:

• The sun is currently more active than usual, making the planet generally warmer
• Stricter sulfur limits in the shipping industry could contribute to ocean heating
• A volcanic eruption in early 2022 released heat-trapping water vapor into the atmosphere

But it has yet to be determined whether any or all of these factors are truly to blame. In the meantime, Schmidt is calling on fellow climate experts to heed the latest data.

Plotting a response

For Schmidt, his urgent call for better information and a more effective climate response is both professional and personal.

“My daughter was born in 2015, which means that she may well live to 2100,” he said. “So the projections that we make, she’ll see how that all works out.”

And the sooner we obtain that data, Schmidt argues, the sooner we can expect change on a wide scale. As he recently told an interviewer: “I mean, if we really felt that people would make better decisions without information, you would not be a journalist. I would not be a scientist. We would not believe in democracy.”

Chris Agee October 17th, 2024

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