Doubt global warming? The planet won't tell a lie

Why is there so much confusion about whether the planet is warming? We believe a big part of the problem centers on the use of earth surface temperature data as a direct measure of warming. Where do you stick the thermometer? What matters most: Daytime highs? Nighttime lows? Summer or winter temperatures? Trying to determine whether the planet is warming in this fashion seems fraught with peril.

One doesn’t need to measure thousands of temperatures to find conclusive evidence that the planet is warming. The earth does the averaging for us. Many physical and biological characteristics show that the earth is warming and has been for decades.

Studies from both hemispheres indicate that 95% of the world’s alpine glaciers, excluding Antarctica, are retreating. Glacier National Park in Montana is down to 26 named glaciers from 150 in 1850, and if this trend continues, the park is expected to be ice-free by 2020. Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking so rapidly that the summer flow of the major rivers (Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yellow, Yangtze) they feed might eventually be affected.

Permafrost regions are thawing in high northern latitudes, causing buildings to sink and roads to crumble. Melting permafrost is the reason Arctic shorelines are retreating, forcing the relocation of Inupiat Eskimo villages along the shore.

The great ice sheets are all retreating. The Greenland ice sheet melting began to accelerate in the 1990s, and the margin of the entire ice mass is melting even in its northernmost reaches.The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun extensive melting, mostly since 2000. More recently, the first indication that the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet was melting and contributing to the sea level rise was reported last month in Nature Geoscience.

USA Today