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Earth

Earth Shattered Global Heat Record In 2023 (apnews.com) 227

The European climate agency Copernicus said Earth shattered global annual heat records in 2023, flirting with the world's agreed-upon warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. "On average, global temperatures in 2023 were 1.48 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times," reports the Associated Press. "If annual averages reach above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the effects of global warming could become irreversible, climate scientists say." From the report: The record heat made life miserable and sometimes deadly in Europe, North America, China and many other places last year. But scientists say a warming climate is also to blame for more extreme weather events, like the lengthy drought that devastated the Horn of Africa, the torrential downpours that wiped out dams and killed thousands in Libya and the Canada wildfires that fouled the air from North America to Europe. In a separate Tuesday press event, international climate scientists who calculate global warming's role in extreme weather, the group's leader, Imperial College climate scientist Friederike Otto said "we definitely see in our analysis the strong impact of it being the hottest year."

The World Weather Attribution team only looks at events that affect at least 1 million people or kill more than 100 people. But Otto said her team was overwhelmed with more than 160 of those in 2023, and could only conduct 14 studies, many of them on killer heat waves. "Basically every heat wave that is occurring today has been made more likely and is hotter because of human-induced climate change," she said. [....] Antarctic sea ice hit record low levels in 2023 and broke eight monthly records for low sea ice, Copernicus reported.

Copernicus calculated that the global average temperature for 2023 was about one-sixth of a degree Celsius (0.3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record set in 2016. While that seems a small amount in global record-keeping, it's an exceptionally large margin for the new record, [Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess] said. Earth's average temperature for 2023 was 14.98 degrees Celsius (58.96 degrees Fahrenheit), Copernicus calculated.

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Earth Shattered Global Heat Record In 2023

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  • by davide marney ( 231845 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @09:10PM (#64145757) Journal

    They reported one-sixth of a degree difference averaged over the entire globe for a period of an entire year? With what margin of error was this average computed? How many sites were sampled to arrive at the average? Where were these sites located, what percentage in urban areas vs rural? Do they include satellite measurements, or just land? Do they include sea-based? Geographically, how distributed?

    This is what gets me about these layman science articles from corporate media sources such as the AP. You read the article, and it's full of photos of people sweating under the hot sun and all these wild-a*s claims, but never any information about the numbers themselves. Never anything you can use to tell if you're just being fed junk science or real data.

    Frankly, I am highly skeptical of these claims. These people have a vested interest in climate fear mongering, they make a living off of it. I'll see the actual proof, please, or don't bother making claims.

    • by Mark of the North ( 19760 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @10:33PM (#64145885)

      I'll agree that I would have liked links to the source articles/studies, rather than just other AP articles, but they weren't hard to find. The article mentions each of the source organisations and mentions scientists involved in the studies. That information makes for easy searching.

      I will add that highly sceptical of someone proposing a conspiracy theory about "these people" and their "climate fear mongering" to justify his complete lack of effort to look for any evidence ("proof" is a term we scientists try to avoid) he demands. One could flip it around and ask that he provide his evidence for climate fear mongering.

      • Why even make me search for it? Why not tell us right out: what is the margin of error for their measurement, and how did they calculate it?

        • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @04:36AM (#64146233)

          Why even make me search for it? Why not tell us right out: what is the margin of error for their measurement, and how did they calculate it?

          Because an AP news story is just that, a news story for the general public. It's not a scientific journal written for people who think they understand statistics (and I'm not necessarily calling you out by saying people who "think" the understand it, but the fact of the matter is the overwhelming majority of the population do not understand this even if some think they do).

          If you want an article with information to suit your level of statistical understanding then you shouldn't be reading the AP. It's not written for *you*. It's written for everyone else. Go search for the scientific journals if that is your level of understanding. You can subscribe directly to them and get all the mathematical details right there in your inbox.

          In other news, why don't we talk about knitting on Slashdot?

      • Flirting (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Latent Heat ( 558884 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @06:11AM (#64146331)

        It shattered, shattered I say existing heat records, made life both miserable and at the same time deadly, and can you believe it, it flirted with the 1.5 deg C temperature limit that your domestic partner reminded you we had already agreed upon.

        Get with the program, peasant!

    • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @10:51PM (#64145915)
      Dude. You conservatives won. As a species, we’ve done literally nothing about carbon emmissions. Wind and solar are only growing because they’re actually cheaper than the alternatives in some regions. We’re dumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than ever. And those numbers aren’t gonna go down for decades, since the projected reduction curves are hilariously based on assumptions that we can revamp our entire energy infrastructure with a wave of our hands.

      You got your way, dude. We’ve done nothing, the planet is headed towards 3-5 C warming, humans are gonna have to re-jig literally everything and head towards the poles so modern civilization can survive, half the species aregonna go extinct, and in about a century we’ll be geoengineering the planet just to cope. Uncle. I give. You won. Could you please just take a victory lap?
      • by Pentium100 ( 1240090 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @01:37AM (#64146067)

        And those numbers arenâ(TM)t gonna go down for decades, since the projected reduction curves are hilariously based on assumptions that we can revamp our entire energy infrastructure with a wave of our hands.

        Well, stuff like that does not change overnight. By the way, weren't the environmentalists so against nuclear power for some reason? I think one of their arguments was that it takes a long time to build, well, sure, but if they were not against it, some power plants would have already been completed.
        Now it's the same song again - "nuclear takes too long to build, we need a solution NOW", which will be repeated 20 years later.

        Wind and solar alone will never be able to replace gas, coal and nuclear, because there are times when there is no wind at night. Again, the wishful thinking comes - "but we will just build storage, have smart grids so we won't need electricity on nights with no wind". Yeah, right.

        Oh, by the way, IIRC enviros also oppose hydroelectric power plants. So, maybe it's not the CO2 they oppose but they want to make the grid unstable so that there are frequent outages? Or they want some kind of perfection and oppose everything not perfect enough, even if it would be good enough.

        Or, maybe it was wrong to combine environmentalism with Marxism? Instead of figuring out how to generate power with less pollution etc, instead the same people were planning to take away private property, take away cars (whatever power source) and make people use public transport, live in cramped apartments and lease everything (so, pretty much back to the USSR, but somehow worse).

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by SodaStream ( 6820788 )
          Many opposed Nuclear energy in part because of disasters like Chernobyl and because energy companies liked to stoke those fears, which they gleefully stoked in people who hated hippies as well.

          >Instead of figuring out how to generate power with less pollution etc, instead the same people were planning to take away private property, take away cars (whatever power source) and make people use public transport, live in cramped apartments and lease everything (so, pretty much back to the USSR, but somehow
          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Pentium100 ( 1240090 )

            The point is - there is a big difference between changing the power source and the other stuff. I'm not attached to coal or gas power. I don't really care, as long as electricity does not become too expensive (though they have been saying that solar and wind power is really cheap now and is cheaper than coal, so, yeah, why would I want to pay more for coal power if I can get cheaper wind power?). Maybe solar, wind and nuclear combination would be cheap and zero-emissions, that would be awesome.

            However - in

        • Wind and solar alone will never be able to replace gas, coal and nuclear,

          No one except folks on the fringe or folks such as yourself making up lies to deflect have said that. What has been said is we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and wind and solar are the way to do it. This isn't a binary system. As difficult as it is to believe you can have wind and solar for large portions of electricity production while at the same time having a limited amount of fossil fuel plants for load balancing and

        • by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
          Most environmentalists did and still are campaigning for renewables. Please don't confuse a few fringe members who wanted to drop out of society (they exist on the right too) with the mass of environmentalists. Heck, there are some that wanted more nuclear. Environmentalists have a range of opinions and aren't some hive mind any more than any other large group of people that share some common ground.
        • Well, stuff like that does not change overnight. By the way, weren't the environmentalists so against nuclear power for some reason?

          "were" is the correct verb tense. Nuclear power is now more controversial, with indeed some of the old-timer environmentalists still opposed, but a lot of the newer ones supporting it, and a significant fraction simply saying "there are arguments both for and against."

          (for myself, I try to avoid talking in depth about nuclear power; the advocates aren't willing to admit it has any problems, while the opponents aren't willing to admit that problems have solutions.)

          ...
          Or, maybe it was wrong to combine environmentalism with Marxism?

          Not sure who you're referring to. Marxists

      • by RobinH ( 124750 )
        Between migration and geo-engineering, the latter is far, far cheaper, and therefore far more likely to be the "solution."
        • Between migration and geo-engineering, the latter is far, far cheaper, and therefore far more likely to be the "solution."

          Workable plans for geoengineering at the scale required to deal with climate change have never progressed beyond very top-level back-of-the-envelope analyses, and realistic cost estimates simply do not exist.

          Put carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and it continues to warm the Earth for a hundred years, and possibly more. Put in a geoengineering solution like, for example, reflecting some of the incident sunlight, and you have to keep replacing and maintaining that for hundreds of years... as well as putting n

      • Could you please just take a victory lap?

        No. Now shut up and if you could, please die. Your usefulness is up.

      • it is false that "we" have done literally nothing, that kind of hysteria isn't helpful
        • it is false that "we" have done literally nothing, that kind of hysteria isn't helpful

          Done nothing about what? What is that? Then tell all present how it is false to claim whatever it is you refer to. Thank you for your clarification.

    • by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @11:28PM (#64145955) Homepage

      They reported one-sixth of a degree difference averaged over the entire globe for a period of an entire year?

      Yep. Measuring over more data points-- the entire globe-- reduces the error bars. Averaging reduces error bars: The more measurements you average, the smaller your error in the mean.

      With what margin of error was this average computed? How many sites were sampled to arrive at the average? Where were these sites located, what percentage in urban areas vs rural?

      You know, all of these are exhaustively dealt with in the actual literature. This particular press-release was from the European Copernicus [copernicus.eu] programme, but there are four other major research institutions that collate global data, and a dozen others that look at regional climate. The Copernicus summary that's being discussed is here: https://climate.copernicus.eu/... [copernicus.eu] but if you want just the one-figure graph showing the result, look here: https://apnews.com/article/cli... [apnews.com]

    • by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @12:35AM (#64146003)

      If you want the "numbers" then a social media site like /. is not the way to go. Nor the typical lay media that gets reported here.

      If you want real climate science without all the political bullshit and willful ignorance go to Real Climate [realclimate.org] where only real scientists discuss the real research they are doing.

      Of course I doubt that many of our our participants here will ever go to that link. It is much more comfortable to hang on to their own cherished "common sense" positions which they believe will place them at the apex of any scientific debate.

      • If you want the "numbers" then a social media site like /. is not the way to go.

        Interesting.

        I've never heard of, nor have I ever thought of Slashdot as a "social media" site....??

        LOL...anti-social at best?

        • I've never heard of, nor have I ever thought of Slashdot as a "social media" site....??

          LOL...anti-social at best?

          What category would you put it in? What is so amazingly different about it than, say, reddit, X, 4chan, fark, or for that matter, disqus? Or any of dozens of others?

          The clique is different. The moderation is a bit different. The community feedback needs to be re-written but never will be. It doesn't support pictures.

          But at the end of the day it is a social media site. Now I'm curious to know what you thought it was.

    • I remember when I used to come to slashdot for the intelligent discourse...
    • Frankly, I am highly skeptical of these claims. These people have a vested interest in climate fear mongering, they make a living off of it. I'll see the actual proof, please, or don't bother making claims.

      That's admirable. It's wise to at least question the likelihood of any information.

      That said, a couple things. One: thirty seconds of Google gave me this: https://climate.copernicus.eu/... [copernicus.eu] which has a nice section regarding data access where it spells out how access to the data is granted. So... you didn't really try.

      Two: if you're not willing to do that work and you're not willing to license the data, you're not entitled to dispute that data. If you're not qualified to analyze the data, you're not

    • by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
      Go to the NOAA website. All your questions can be answered there.
  • As I always say... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jmccue ( 834797 )

    Living in the extreme North of the US 48, as I always say: "Why move to Florida when Florida is coming here".

  • by Flavianoep ( 1404029 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @09:34PM (#64145811)

    Earth Shattered Global Heat Record Again In 2023.

    Fixed the title.

  • To complete some other corrections I was in the comments
  • by tiqui ( 1024021 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @03:00AM (#64146133)

    of the pre-industrial era...

    We need REAL science, not quasi-political pseudo-science garbage that produces a line like "On average, global temperatures in 2023 were 1.48 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times,". In order to make that statement, you must claim to have temperatures from pre-industrial times that are accurate to 1 percent of a degree Celsius. Decades ago students learned in their initial college science classes that you do NOT get more precision by doing a bunch of averages. If I take a measurement with a thermometer with 1 degree resolution, and then repeat it many times and sum-average I do NOT get a more precise temperature and I do NOT get to claim to have a temperature measurement resolution of 1 percent of a degree, all I get to claim is that I have a more accurate (error reduction) measurement (removing things like instability in the instrument) of my 1 degree accurate instrument and can be more certain the number is 43 rather than 44 ... I DO NOT get to claim the number is 43.2641 no matter how many digits my calculator spews.

    This is basic

    It's also not acceptable to average measurements of temperatures/heights/etc over a wide-area using a grid of sample locations when you know that there are significant localized variations between sample points. This means that the over-all "average tempaerature" or "average height" etc can be changed dramatically simply by moving the data sampling locations a little bit. For example, I get different temperatures at the same time of day with the same thermometer, depending upon which corner of my property I take the measurement on. The property is steeply sloped and the vegitation varies. If I report the temperature of my property as the average of 3 data points, and choose the NE, NW and SE corners, I get one "property temperature" but if I use the NW, SW, and SE corners, I get a very different "property temperature" - and the difference is tenths or even full degrees, not hundreths of a degree.

    I despise the people abusing science for their own political agendas, and in the process, damaging the reputation of ACTUAL LEGITIMATE SCIENCE in the minds of the greater public. This stuff needs to end, and some actual adult scientists need to step-in to replace the dimwits who took on the top academic science positions post 1965ish.

    NOTE: I am NOT making any argument here about whether "global warming" is happening, or man-made, or any of that...people are free to rant and rave on that from their political corners all they want. I am saddened that I even need to add this note because there are some people here with political agendas that blind them so badly they cannot read a full comment properly enough to notice what is actually being said and instead simply want to rage that somebody is saying something that crosses their damned POLITICAL lines.

    • Why should there be anything wrong with feeding the trolls, right?

    • > I am NOT making any argument here about whether "global warming" is happening, or man-made, or any of that..

      Yes you are. You're using the 'concern troll' method to undermine confidence in the current scientific consensus.

    • You miss the point.

      We don't give a shit about having the temperature of 1716 to 1% of a degree of accuracy.

      "1.48 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times" means:

      - almost 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times
      - 0.18 degrees Celsius higher than 1.30 which was the previous record (2016/2020)

    • "Prove it, and by the way, I'm putting "proof" on the far side of a very high barrier." That's fine. But what you're really doing is stating the obvious - in a complex system you can't "prove" anything. You can only point to where the preponderance of evidence seems to imply you're headed.

      Reminds me of Russell's Teapot.

    • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      These alarmists seem content to refer to a small band of time during the little ice age as the 'pre industrial period', ignoring the fact that it was still significantly warmer across the world during the time of human emergence and the growth of early civilizations.

      Nevermind that the earth was more hospitable then to plant and animal life due to said temperatures.

      5 minutes of reading could dissuade the smart alarmists, if they'd only bother. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_temperature_record

    • by TerryMathews ( 57165 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @04:25PM (#64147929)

      >We need REAL science, not quasi-political pseudo-science garbage

      OK, so try this. I omitted the rest of your ramble because you clearly have no understanding of math. You postulate that the stated pre-industrial average is incorrect because thermometers from that era would be accurate to 1 degree at best, correct? Setting aside the fact that wouldn't be the case - as you could design a fairly wide ranged mercury thermometer if you so chose - we're not dealing with a single day. We're dealing with an average of 365 - the number of days in a year.

      One degree of temperature divided into 365 days yields 0.002739xxxx. So 1.48 is well within the calculable range of precision of a single-degree accuracy thermometer when dealing with a yearly average of daily samples.

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @04:16AM (#64146193)
    Reading some of the comments on threads about climate change makes me wonder how many of the accounts are sock-puppets & bots run by fossil fuels lobbyists to keep us distracted & to try to wear us out. We shouldn't be bothering with inconsequential, idiotic messages on the interwebs pipes. We should be doing things that actually make a difference. Climate mitigation policies are a political issue & so we need to put pressure on our political representatives, of all stripes, to do the right thing & not kowtow to fossil fuels interests.
    • We should be doing things that actually make a difference.

      Things that actually make a difference are illegal.

      Climate mitigation policies are a political issue & so we need to put pressure on our political representatives

      Tried that already. They claim before election they're going to move on climate issues and then when they get into office they make the problem worse, reliably. You can't solve this problem by voting. Too much money is arrayed against you.

      Only direct action can help now, and I for one am not sneaky enough to get away with that shit.

    • We do know people have sockpuppet accounts here. You can also see a big difference in creativity of user names between some of the climate denial accounts and other people on here. So you're making a very safe bet.

      However.

      Don't forget some people are just fucking dumb.

  • This is the graph that causes me fear:
    https://climatereanalyzer.org/... [climatereanalyzer.org]

    Note that the 2024 start is about .45C above 2023, which itself was a runaway record year (the sort where the scale on the graph is adjusted).

    The ocean is where all of the excess heat ends up. It really heated up last year, and didn't let up.

  • Super convenient (Score:2, Interesting)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

    It's super convenient for alarmist purposes when you narrowly define "pre-industrial periods" as what we otherwise know as the several hundred years directly prior to the industrial revolution - which coincidentally was the direct cause of economic and social collapse across the world when it started.

    If a person - any lay person - were to take about about 5 minutes [wikipedia.org] they could quickly see that we are at the height of a warm period during a historically cold era. There is no evidence that humans are influenti

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