For the first time in a long time, planet Earth reached an average temperature of 58.96 degrees Fahrenheit this year, according to a recently published study in Science, a highly respected journal.
But that’s nothing compared to the hottest temperature of 96.8 degrees F over the past 485 million years.
Even global warming scientists were surprised by findings reported in the article, “A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature.”
Authors Emily Judd and Jess Tierney, both of the University of Arizona, wrote that the Earth is warming faster today than at any time since 485 million years ago. There were no polar ice caps then and average temperatures were above 86 degrees F.
Climates such as we now live in have existed in just 13% of the 485-million-year period.
Judd said the Earth's average temperature was about 62 degrees F more than 5 million years ago, a level that may be reached in 2100. Humans evolved when average temperatures were as low as 51.8 degrees F.
Carbon dioxide is the Earth’s master temperature dial and we could quickly have a hot time on Mother Earth according to the temperature study.
Quickly, in geologic time, that is.
But there still is urgency.
“We built our civilization around those geologic landscapes of an icehouse. So even though climate has been warmer, humans haven’t lived in a warmer climate, and there are a lot of consequences that humans face during this time,” Judd told the Washington Post.
Most computer models of the Earth’s temperature have been based on ocean temperatures, but they account for only 70% of the Earth. The new study includes both ocean and land temperatures and land temperatures can be hotter.
Ancient land temperatures are derived from fossils.
Animals and plants cannot adapt as fast as temperature changes have occurred in the past, the scientists say.
Tierney told the Washington Post “... we should be worried about human warming because it’s so fast. We’re changing Earth’s temperature at a rate that exceeds anything we know about.”
He also said that the carbon dioxide master dial is giving “... an important message in terms of understanding why emissions from fossil fuels are a problem today.”
Unfortunately, that’s a message unwelcomed by today’s climate change deniers, of which there is no shortage.
And among the deniers, there is no paucity of chicanery. The late Republican Sen. James Inhofe, of Oklahoma, who chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, provided a ridiculous example when, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, displayed a snowball in February as evidence against global warming!
It appears that nearly half of America’s voters are champing at the bit to elect former President Donald Trump, an idolized leader of global warming deniers.
He has said, “... the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years ... and you’ll have more oceanfront property.”
But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports “Sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10-12 inches in the next 30 years, which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years."
A 1-foot rise in ocean levels may not seem like much, but flooding is already causing the relocation of communities and many nations are planning to build dikes to protect dealing with it.
Of course, this is only one of the problems associated with rising temperatures, which threaten ocean and land animals and plants.
Day is a retired Washington State faculty member and a Pullman resident since 1972. He has enjoyed a life-long interest in history, law, politics and religion. He encourages email — pro and con — to terence@moscow.com. Give him a piece of your mind.
