Methdown, photo by Andrew McFarlane
“2016 is remarkably the third record year in a row in this series We don’t expect record years every year, but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear.”
– NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director Gavin Schmidt
NASA reported last week that 2016 was the warmest year on record: You can read about it below, but I would like to offer two thoughts to the people who are getting angry about me ruining their daily photo with “politics”:
This is not politics. This is provable science backed up with excellent data.
While NASA (and I) believe in anthropocentric climate change (climate change driven by human activity) disbelief in that model DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT HAPPENING.
Earth’s 2016 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Globally-averaged temperatures in 2016 were 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean. This makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a new record for global average surface temperatures.
The 2016 temperatures continue a long-term warming trend, according to analyses by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. NOAA scientists concur with the finding that 2016 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data.
Read on for more at NASA.
You can view my photo from a thaw in early February 2009 background big and see more in my Frozen Shore slideshow.
Michigan in Pictures 
It’s my understanding that the climate goes in cycles where there will be a period of warmer than average temperatures and then colder temps. Also, since records have been kept since only 1880, we could have had even warmer and colder than average temps before 1880. I still think the global warming doomsayers are out to control as many aspects of other peoples’ lives as much as they can (i.e. socialism).
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That is possible I guess, but most scientists I know really don’t care about controlling people. They are honest, caring people. I have looked at the science and it’s compelling to me. We do know that carbon traps heat, so whatever the cause, reducing carbon emission will mitigate the effects of clearly rising temperatures.
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Thank you for enhancing your photos with real information and knowledge! In this new Regime of alternative facts, someone needs to speak the actual! An almost 80 year old Woman who fears for our country!
Sent from my iPad
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You’re welcome. It’s usually popular, but for some reason the fact that the last three years have been the warmest on record is considered political. Facts shouldn’t be political.
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It is more important now than ever before to keep the facts foremost. The powers of darkness are alive but cannot win if we continue to maintain the light.
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I just want to have a world where my kids can live and grow as I did and have kids of their own. We owe them a duty to do everything we can to pass a better world to them.
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Thank you for speaking truth to “alternative facts.”
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Thank you Linda. I’m really not trying to start a political fight, though. I do that plenty on my personal Facebook! This is a serious happening that will very much affect the Great Lakes and Michigan.
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2016 was 0.07 degrees (7/100ths) Fahrenheit above 2015. That is slightly more than one tenth of one percent. Ten thousand years ago, right here in Michigan, we would be under a 1 mile to 3 mile thick glacier. Not a billion years ago, not a million year ago, not 100,000 years ago, but only 10,000 years ago. There are natural climate changes.
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Brian, I don’t think anyone would argue with the statement that there are natural climate changes. So yes, in that aspect you are correct. However the industrial footprint of man has not existed previously. Never. Do not discount the acceleration that such a footprint can cause (and apparently is causing).
In any case, what good can possibly come of shutting off the flow of valid data (not interpreted data, raw data)? Would you prefer to wake up one morning in the middle of a massive flood, or to realize after four or five successive years of drought that maybe the water isn’t going to come back and you’re going to have to just walk away from what used to be a working farm? Or would you rather have access to information that will allow you to plan on how to avoid these things, or if not avoid them, then have alternatives ready to go?
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Is this change natural? 97% of the people who are trained to interpret this sort of data say it’s not? We’re not living 10,000 years ago though. A very important point is that at the end of the day, a fact doesn’t care what you thought about it.
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“a fact doesn’t care what you thought about it.”
So true. It still shocks me to see “socialistic” motives imputed to scientists, who are trying to “control” us. Nothing we are talking about here has anything to do with politics. And yet …
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Crazy how warm this winter has been!
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Not like when I was a kid. I don’t like how quickly the January thaw has moved from a brief & occasional interruption to an every year event. It’s been over a week and I’m watching the shoreline up here in Leelanau get eaten by waves when it would normally be covered in ice and snow.
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Yeah it’s interesting what effect warmer weather has in winter
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What I find interesting about these facts is that the amount 2016 was warmer than 2015 is .01 degrees Celsius with a margin of error of +-.1 degrees Celsius. The margin of error is 10 times the amount. That my friends is statistically insignificant…..ie; “The sky is falling” But, hey, I’m no scientist. I am however not mathematically challenged.
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“The sky is falling” part comes in having the warmest years all in a cluster and the general trend.
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