The past few years have been the hottest globally since records have been kept, and have broken temperature records. And the pace of global warming is accelerating! The rate has surged so much that it is nearly double what it was in the 1970s. Yikes!
This means climate change is speeding up. Temperatures, storms, droughts, wildfires, and so on. Carbon dioxide levels are at the highest level in about 2 million years. All of this has been predicted by climate change models. So no - it is not just normal swings in climate. In fact, scientists feel we're close to Earth's tipping points (e.g, Atlantic Ocean currents weakening and slowing down.)
It is past time for governments to address this issue. But will they?
From YaleEnvironment360: Global Warming Is Accelerating, Study Shows
The Earth is warming at the fastest rate on record as emissions hit new highs and critical carbon sinks break down.
From Science Daily: Scientists detect a sudden acceleration in global warming
Global warming has been increasing at a faster pace since about 2015, according to a new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). By adjusting global temperature records to remove known natural influences, researchers were able to identify a statistically significant rise in the rate of warming for the first time.
During the past decade, global temperatures have climbed at an estimated rate of about 0.35°C per decade, depending on the dataset analyzed. From 1970 through 2015, the average increase was just under 0.2°C per decade. The more recent trend represents the fastest warming observed in any decade since instrumental temperature records began in 1880.
"We can now demonstrate a strong and statistically significant acceleration of global warming since around 2015," says Grant Foster, a US statistics expert and co-author of the study, which was published today in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.