Scary environmental chart of the century

Scary environmental chart of the century

by digby

Chris Mooney:

It is official: According to both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the year 2014 was the hottest ever measured, based on records going back to the year 1880.

It now surpasses all past scorchers, including 1998, 2005, and 2010. Indeed, except for 1998, says NASA, the 10 hottest years recorded have all occurred since the year 2000.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the new record is that it occurred even though 2014 was not an El Niño year, of the sort that usually powers the already up-trending global average temperature to new highs.

Sure, this may have happened before but even if it did we should probably concern ourselves with the fact that it's happening again, don't you think? And maybe try to do something about it? Yes, we know that science isn't perfect but this seems like one situation where in which the preponderance of evidence says that humans are contributing to this problem might require that we take steps to mitigate this problem if we can.

What I don't understand is the vehemence of the opposition. Sure, the Koch brothers and the other oil and coal soaked Big Money Boyz stand to see a dent in their billions over time if we get off fossil fuels. But why are so many ordinary people against doing something about this? How will it hurt them personally? Nobody anywhere has suggested that people go back to living by candle light and moving around by horse and carriage.

I guess it's sheer tribalism and hatred of hippies and scientists. What else could it be?

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