There has been controversy among scientists about a “pause” in global warming during the early 2000s. Whether that theory is right or not, the scientific debate does not change the fact that temperatures are rising at alarming rates, with 2014 and 2015 setting back-to-back global records.

Last year, the debate was put to rest by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) when it recalculated some of its data and completely denied the theory of a global warming pause. But in an article recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change top climate scientists affirm that NOAA’s conclusion was not valid, insisting that global warming did slowdown in the 2000s.

Photo: National Geographic/Paul Nicklen
Photo: National Geographic/Paul Nicklen

In a 2013 report, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change first announced there had been a real slowdown of global warming over the past 15 years. And the NOAA last year reported that “newly corrected and updated global surface temperature data… do not support the notion of a global warming ‘hiatus’.

However, climate scientists published an article this month, claiming that NOAA’s interpretation was not valid, as written by John Fyfe, a climate scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada. He affirmed that the slowdown was there even in the newly updated data set.

Nonetheless, this debate remains purely scientific, given that, if real, the slowdown was a brief phenomenon because it clearly is over. Global warming is still a threat.

What to do

The very thin shell of atmosphere surrounding the Earth receives 110 million tons of global warming pollution each day, according to Al Gore, chairman of Generation Investment Management and the Climate Change Project. He addresses the problem as an obvious man-made phenomenon and wrote in an article for the Huffington Post that we must change the way we live, stressing that there is hope is we really take action.

Al Gore believes that the significant decline in the cost of renewable energy, energy efficiency, batteries and storage, as well as the spread of sustainable agriculture, will help give the world a unique opportunity to embrace a sustainable lifestyle in the near future. In his article, he provides a list of examples, including a low carbon, hyper-efficient economy.

Many businesses and investors are already embracing this future, but it is necessary that the whole world joins the mix.

Source: The Huffington Post