We have passed a milestone that we need to acknowledge. Slate published news about a critical event in the ongoing saga about climate change. This is not some theoretical prediction. This is real. It's past the time to talk about climate change and get down to business. Maybe this will propel action at the forthcoming COP meeting.
On Monday, scientists at Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, said our planet will finish this year more than one degree Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels for the first time. That figure is halfway to the line in the sand that scientists say represents "dangerous" climate change and global leaders have committed to avoid—an ominous milestone.
I went to the British Met Office to get the original story. Here is the key part.
9 November 2015 – Met Office data for 2015 so far shows that, for the first time, global mean temperature at the Earth's surface is set to reach 1 °C above pre-industrial levels This represents an important marker as the world continues to warm due to human influence.
'Uncharted territory'
Based on data from January to September, the HadCRUT dataset jointly run by the Met Office and the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia shows 2015 global mean temperature at 1.02 °C (±0.11 °C) above pre-industrial levels*. Stephen Belcher, Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre, said: "We have seen a strong El Nino develop in the Tropical Pacific this year and that will have had some impact on this year's global temperature. "We've had similar natural events in the past, yet this is the first time we're set to reach the 1 °C marker and it's clear that it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory."
Early indications suggest 2016 will be similarly warm and while it's more difficult to say exactly what will happen in the years immediately after that, we expect warming to continue in the longer term. Peter Stott, Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution, said: "This year marks an important first but that doesn't necessarily mean every year from now on will be a degree or more above pre-industrial levels, as natural variability will still play a role in determining the temperature in any given year. As the world continues to warm in the coming decades, however, we will see more and more years passing the 1 degree marker – eventually it will become the norm."
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