2024 is officially the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. Even worse is that we last year passed a worrisome milestone.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, NASA and others confirmed the Earth warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above temperatures in the 1800s, before people began burning fossil fuels.
In 2018, scientists published a major report warning that surpassing that 1.5 C level of warming would greatly increase the risks of longer and more intense heat waves, more destructive hurricanes and drastic losses of biodiversity.
Climate change is supercharging all manner of natural disasters, including hurricanes, droughts and wildfires like the stunning blazes we’ve been witnessing in the Los Angeles area.
While not the sole cause, scientists say climate change is a major contributor to the L.A. wildfires.
Hydroclimate whiplash is when one weather extreme is replaced by another.
The L.A. area has for two years been extremely wet but then was quickly hit with severe drought. Vegetation that grew large and lush during the wet years suddenly dried out, providing fuel for blazes to spread.
Add to that consistent high winds and you have fires that are difficult if not impossible to successfully fight.
While most everyone sees and knows that climate change is horribly altering our world, President-elect Donald Trump does not.
He calls climate change “an expensive hoax” and blames the current wildfires on the Democrat California governor.
It is a false, dangerous and politically self-serving stance for the man who will soon lead the country.
The heating of the planet has long been well forecasted by scientists around the world. Even though some still want to cling to fantasy, the rest of the country understands what’s wrong and can continue to work on mitigating it.