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Global Warming “Pause” is on the Way

The last few years have shown the highest temperatures that have ever been recorded. So, should we be overly concerned with this information? We have to take two things into account – the long-term pattern where there is increased heat each year, then short term figures that are influenced by the seasons and weather changes.

Daniel Okafor
Daniel OkaforSenior AI Reporter
2 min read
Global Warming “Pause” is on the Way

The last few years have shown the highest temperatures that have ever been recorded. So, should we be overly concerned with this information? We have to take two things into account – the long-term pattern where there is increased heat each year, then short term figures that are influenced by the seasons and weather changes.

These two aspects are joining to give the current situation and although February 2016 was the hottest month ever there is no need to panic. This is an El Nino year, and when these occur, the temperatures do rise. Global warming is not responsible for the temperatures that have been reached recently, but there is the worry that the overall increase in temperature is continuing and not seeming to tail off.

READ ALSO: Scientists Have a Plan to Freeze Water over Antartica for Stoping the Rising Sea Level

Each century there is a rise and to an extent, humans can control this. There is also the concern that when the current rise in temperature subside, global warming will not be an issue, and this is not the case. There is no reason for it to stop. It is easy to claim this is a short term issue and nothing else, but there is still a long-term rise. Even global warming skeptics have carried out a study and concluded that decisions could not be made for short term periods – up to 15 years.

Temporary spikes have always happened, but the figures are not falling, and the problem belongs to the whole world. We can’t pretend there is no problem, or it will be too late to deal with the issue.

Average of NASA GISS, NOAA NCDC, and HadCRUT4 monthly global surface temperature anomalies from January 1970 through November 2012 (green) with linear trends applied to the timeframes Jan ’70 – Oct ’77, Apr ’77 – Dec ’86, Sep ’87 – Nov ’96, Jun ’97 – Dec ’02, and Nov ’02 – Nov ’12. Image Credit: Skeptical Science at http://www.skepticalscience.com/does-global-warming-pause-mean-what-you-think.html.

Story Via Forbes, Author Ethan Siegel ( Astrophysicist ) Follow him on Twitter,

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Daniel Okafor

Daniel Okafor

Senior AI Reporter

Daniel Okafor is the Senior AI Reporter at TrendinTech, where he covers large language models, machine learning research and the practical use of artificial intelligence across business and government. He previously reported on artificial intelligence for MIT Technology Review, covering the labs behind the current generation of frontier models and the policy debates in Washington and Brussels. Daniel holds a Master of Science in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University and follows the research community closely, attending NeurIPS and ICML each year to speak with the people behind the papers. He has a particular interest in evaluation: how models are benchmarked, where those benchmarks fail and what that means for the companies betting on them.

All stories by Daniel Okafor (316)