New Study Finds A Higher Rate Of Global Warming From 1899-1940 Than From 1983-2024
Global warming was significantly more pronounced in the early 20th century and prior to 1940, or back when CO2 emissions rates were 8.6 times lower than they were from 1983-2024.
A new study using 60 million daily maximum/minimum temperatures from 1600 global weather stations across 29 countries indicates the globe warmed at a rate of 0.022°C/yr from 1899-1940, a 42-year period when cumulative CO2 emissions only amounted to 139.6 GtC.
Then, over the next 42 years (1941-1982), global temperatures cooled at a rate of -0.011°C/yr even though cumulative CO2 emissions rose to 460.0 GtC. In other words, CO2 emission rates more than tripled from the 1940s to 1980s as global temperatures declined.
Global warming returned by the 1980s. However, over the next 42 years (1983-2024) the warming rate, 0.017°C/yr, was not as strong as it was in the early 20th century. This slower rate of warming is significant because cumulative CO2 emissions were 1,209.8 GtC during this most recent period, an amount 8.6 times higher than they were from 1899-1940.
So over the last 125 years of “global warming,” at no time has there been a decadal period of warming (or cooling) that could be shown to have closely aligned with the varying rates of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
“These findings challenge the conventional assumption that human-induced CO2 is the primary driver of global warming.”
