Record temperatures for April 2016?
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, calculated that no matter how the rest of the year progresses, there’s a greater than 99 percent chance 2016 will be the warmest year on record. That he’s able to say this in April is mind-boggling. In past record-warm years, we needed to wait until October or November to make predictions with this high of confidence.
Though the current planetary heat wave is likely peaking, it’s still rending entire ecosystems and plunging tens of millions of people into food shortages. On Wednesday, Australian scientists revealed a stark new summary of their comprehensive survey of the Great Barrier Reef: 93 percent of reefs there have experienced bleaching over the past several weeks—which happens when corals become overheated and expel their symbiotic algae, and can quickly lead to coral death. The imminent death of large parts of the Great Barrier Reef should shock the world. About 1 billion people depend on coral reefs for their livelihood. “We’ve never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before,” said Terry Hughes, who led the survey.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/20/record_temperatures_again_in_march.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top
And what does our government have to say? According to our esteemed Attoney-General George Brandis, "The science isn't in yet". Meanwhile, the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching, horrifying scientists worldwide.
Can't wait for July so we can wave this lot goodbye. I'd just like to hear Bill Shorten tell us he's going to reinstate the push for an ETS, then we will know we might have a chance.
