As the lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Ted Scambos is right in middle of the debate surrounding climate change in the United States. On one hand, he sees evidence of climate change and its impact firsthand every day. On the other, he’s on the receiving end of countless messages from a skeptical public.
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For each of the past eight months, global average temperatures have shattered – not just exceeded, but shattered – the records for that month in the past 150 years. Snow this spring retreated at a blistering pace, and covered less area than in any year since satellites began snapping pictures in the mid-1960s. Sea ice cover in the Arctic has set a record – the least ice ever seen for the day – nearly every day since April 1. Ocean surface temperatures stand at near-record highs; snow melt area on Greenland exceeded anything we had seen in a century in 2012, yet 2016 may rival it. Ocean acidity has reached a record, due to excess gas dissolved into it. The evidence could not be clearer.
Having been at many faculty meetings, I can tell you that it is well-nigh impossible to get 97 percent of scientists to agree to a simple coffee break, much less an interpretation of data. This alone should indicate the level of proof that has been attained.
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Global warming is no longer an anticipation. It is no longer something for children or grandchildren to worry about. This is it. We have created the global warming era, now. And yet, almost unnoticed, the tools to solve the issue have begun to appear. The deniers and delayers have lost simply because they could not hide the economic logic of addressing the problem, or convince entrepreneurs not to invent.
