Still Getting Hot In Here

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Yes. There’s snow in Spain. And in the south of France. Yes, it’s recently been cold in places that aren’t usually cold, and yes, Florida residents have been wearing parkas to the golf course, and yes, the UK is running out of salt to put down on icy roads. Global warming skeptics – please don’t. The recent cold spell has – in Europe anyway – been caused by a low pressure system named (not very aptly) “Daisy,” and no, this does not mean climate change is a hoax.

Lest we begin to doubt that it is, indeed, still getting hot in here: some scary stats to keep us on track, post-COP15 meltdown, post cold snap.

2000-2009 was the hottest decade on record. – World Meteorological Organization

8 of the hottest 10 years on record fell within the past decade. – WMO again

2009 will be wind up on the list of the top 5 steamiest (not, unfortunately, in the Nelly sense of the word) years since 1850. – UK Met Office (their weather service)

Summers in the Arctic could be completely free of ice by 2050 or thereabouts. – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Nelly didn’t say it very eloquently, but he wasn’t lying, either. So pull out your parka, but don’t stop unplugging your toaster when you leave for work each morning.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people