Droughts ... floods... heatwaves... you don't have to be an expert to see that 2015 is shaping up to be a record-breaking year when it comes to extreme weather. And, according to the experts, it's only going to get worse.
Earlier this week, the National Weather Service issued an El Nino update, and said that this season may be the worst El Nino event in their 65 years of record keeping. And, international climate scientists are saying the same.
The British Meteorological Office recently published a study, called "Big Changes Underway in the Climate System?", which says that increased carbon pollution is going to exacerbate El Nino and push global temperatures even higher.
In other words, that means temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere are expected to hit new record highs in the 2015-2016 summer season, and that could bring about more extreme weather events for the whole planet.
Rowan Sutton, a scientist who works for the National Center for Atmospheric Science, said, "This is not a fluke. We are seeing the effects of energy steadily accumulating in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere, caused by greenhouse gas emissions."
Adam Scaife, the study's lead researcher, explained further by saying, "We believe we are at an important point in the time series of the Earth's climate and we'll look back on this period as an important turning point." He added, "That's why we're emphasizing it, because we're seeing so many big changes at once."
The consensus among these experts is that global warming is no longer a problem for the future that we're trying to prevent, it is a very real dilemma that we're seeing occur right before our eyes.
A century of pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is coming back to haunt us, and it's only going to get worse if we don't get serious about fighting climate change right now.
-Thom
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