2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29

A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 16, 2023 thru Sat, July 22, 2023.

Story of the Week

This heatwave is a climate omen. But it’s not too late to change course 

The warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date data for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago

Thirty years ago, the world’s nations agreed to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. But what is “dangerous climate change”? Just turn on the television, read the headlines of the morning paper or view your social media feeds. For we are watching it play out in real time this summer, more profoundly than ever before, in the form of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires. Now we know what dangerous climate change looks like. As has been said of obscenity, we know it when we see it. We’re seeing it – and it is obscene.

Scorching temperatures persist across Europe, North America and Asia, as wildfires rage from Canada to Greece. The heat is as relentless as it is intense. For example, Phoenix, Arizona, has broken its record of 18 consecutive days above 110F (43.3C). Even the nights, generally relied upon as a chance to recover from the blistering days, now offer little relief: for more than a week, night-time temperatures in Phoenix have exceeded 90F (32.2C). Meanwhile, severe and deadly flooding has stricken South KoreaJapan, and the north-east United States, from Pennsylvania to Vermont.

The climate crisis – and yes, it is now a crisis – is endangering us now, where we live. Whether it’s the recurrent episodes of hazardous air quality in the east coast cities some of us call home from windblown Canadian wildfire smoke or the toll sadly now being measured in human lives from deadly nearby floods, we are witnessing the devastating and dangerous consequences of unabated human-caused warming. That is a fact.

Indeed, as you “doomscroll” on whatever social media platform you prefer these days, you might see selective images and graphs that would lead you to think Earth’s climate is spinning out of control, in a runaway feedback loop of irreversible tipping points leading us down an inescapable planetary death spiral.

But that’s not what’s happening

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on The Guardian website.

This heatwave is a climate omen. But it’s not too late to change course The warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date data for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago, Opinion by Michael Mann & Susan Joy Hassol, Environment, The Guardian, July 19, 2023 

Articles posted on Facebook

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Monday, July 17, 2023

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Friday July 21, 2023

Saturday July 22, 2023

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 22 July, 2023


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