4 ms·

First time in what timeframe?

tikkabhuna 2y ago
From the first line: > It’s official: Earth’s average temperature climbed to more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in 2024
portaouflop 2y ago
Literally in the subtitle: for one year so far
- DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  They mean when was the baseline. The correct answer is: since industrialization and reliable data
  - datadeft 2y ago
    So in the larger Earth history there could have been a higher increase. We are talking about a super small sample on a huge scale.
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      No one is debating that the earth in the past was much hotter, and far less hospitable than it is today. The issue here is that modern society was built with certain expectations of certain temperature ranges, and by burning petrochemicals and adding carbon to the atmosphere we have increased the hot house effect of CO2 in the atmosphere beyond the ability of the planet to absorb it, resulting in a net average increase in temperature on a global scale. A layman's understanding of this: - burning fossil fuels adds CO2 and CO to the atmosphere - increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere increases the "greenhouse effect" --- this is easily proven with a science experiment 4th graders can do - the added solar gain increases the temperature of the planet beyond what can be radiated out into space for that portion of the planet rotated out of the sunlight - no one has been able to demonstrate that this additional solar energy is doing anything other than warming the planet --- if it isn't doing so, please explain in plain, simple words where this added energy is going and what it is doing
    - jeltz 2y ago
      There have been bigger increases but most likely not faster ones though I am not sure how far back we have reliable data for rate of increase. And even if so this rapid rate of increase is still not a good thing. It will require expensive adaptations and lead to extinctions.
      - aeonik 2y ago
        It's possible there were higher spikes in the past, but I would guess that they were all pretty dramatic events, and yes the earth used to be much hotter in the past. This is obvious if you think about it, all that carbon in the ground had to be in the air before photosynthetic life. And before any life, the Earth was a molten ball of liquid rock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology
    - dghughes 2y ago
      Yes the Earth was molten magma 4.5 billion years but that's not included.
    - abenga 2y ago
      The only time scale we care about is the duration human beings have been around. You know the planet being fine it's humans we are worried about and all that jazz.
captainbland 2y ago
The 1.5C (and other similar) thresholds are based on pre-industrial averages. An average of between 1850 and 1900 is generally considered to be the modern pre-industrial baseline. This is then the average of 2024 as compared to that pre-industrial baseline. The significance of this is the rate at which the planet is warming, which is unprecedented as according to historical data. The rate is what concerns environmental scientists as it means that ecosystems etc. do not have the same time to adapt as compared to pre-historical periods of warming.
lm28469 2y ago
> your kitchen is burning, won't you do anything about it ? > so what ? it burned once 40 years ago already
roelschroeven 2y ago
First time in a very long time. Most certainly the first time since the first beginnings of civilization; I think also the first time since the existence of humans, or maybe even the existence of life at all, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

From the first line: > It’s official: Earth’s average temperature climbed to more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in 2024

portaouflop 2y ago

Literally in the subtitle: for one year so far

DiggyJohnson 2y ago
They mean when was the baseline. The correct answer is: since industrialization and reliable data
- datadeft 2y ago
  So in the larger Earth history there could have been a higher increase. We are talking about a super small sample on a huge scale.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    No one is debating that the earth in the past was much hotter, and far less hospitable than it is today. The issue here is that modern society was built with certain expectations of certain temperature ranges, and by burning petrochemicals and adding carbon to the atmosphere we have increased the hot house effect of CO2 in the atmosphere beyond the ability of the planet to absorb it, resulting in a net average increase in temperature on a global scale. A layman's understanding of this: - burning fossil fuels adds CO2 and CO to the atmosphere - increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere increases the "greenhouse effect" --- this is easily proven with a science experiment 4th graders can do - the added solar gain increases the temperature of the planet beyond what can be radiated out into space for that portion of the planet rotated out of the sunlight - no one has been able to demonstrate that this additional solar energy is doing anything other than warming the planet --- if it isn't doing so, please explain in plain, simple words where this added energy is going and what it is doing
  - jeltz 2y ago
    There have been bigger increases but most likely not faster ones though I am not sure how far back we have reliable data for rate of increase. And even if so this rapid rate of increase is still not a good thing. It will require expensive adaptations and lead to extinctions.
    - aeonik 2y ago
      It's possible there were higher spikes in the past, but I would guess that they were all pretty dramatic events, and yes the earth used to be much hotter in the past. This is obvious if you think about it, all that carbon in the ground had to be in the air before photosynthetic life. And before any life, the Earth was a molten ball of liquid rock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology
  - dghughes 2y ago
    Yes the Earth was molten magma 4.5 billion years but that's not included.
  - abenga 2y ago
    The only time scale we care about is the duration human beings have been around. You know the planet being fine it's humans we are worried about and all that jazz.

captainbland 2y ago

The 1.5C (and other similar) thresholds are based on pre-industrial averages. An average of between 1850 and 1900 is generally considered to be the modern pre-industrial baseline. This is then the average of 2024 as compared to that pre-industrial baseline. The significance of this is the rate at which the planet is warming, which is unprecedented as according to historical data. The rate is what concerns environmental scientists as it means that ecosystems etc. do not have the same time to adapt as compared to pre-historical periods of warming.

lm28469 2y ago

> your kitchen is burning, won't you do anything about it ? > so what ? it burned once 40 years ago already

roelschroeven 2y ago

First time in a very long time. Most certainly the first time since the first beginnings of civilization; I think also the first time since the existence of humans, or maybe even the existence of life at all, but I'm not 100% sure of that.