Page - 176 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

affected…a scientific myth…believing in man-made global warming – after all the scientific discoveries and Revelations that point against this theory – ismore than a little nutty. In fact, some really crazy people use it to justify immoral and frighteningbehavior.’ (69) A highly respected source of information on atmospheric and climatechangesinthe21stcenturyis theNASAGoddardInstitute forSpaceStudies,whichwas established in1961and ledby Jim Hansenfrom1981to2013.InJanuary2018itreportedthat: • Earth’s surface temperatures in 2017 were the second warmest since 1880, when global estimates first become feasible. • Global temperatures in 2017 were second only to 2016, which still holds the record for the hottest year.However, 2017was thewarmest yearwithout an ElNiño. (Note: In a separate, independent analysis, NOAA scientists found that 2017was the third-warmest year in their records. The minor difference is due to different methods to analyze global temperatures used by the two agencies, although over the long-termtherecordsremain instrongagreement.) NASA also reports that global surface temperature relative to an average for the years 1951–1980 had increased by 0.9°C (1.6°F) by2017 (70). SeeFigure 10.3. Toaddto thisdiscussionofpotentialglobalwarmingimpacts I mention two disturbing newspaper articles that caught my attention. They both point out the seriousness and potential scale of these impacts and the timescales involved. The first, by Dana Milbank, appeared in theWashington Post on 12 June 2013. Entitled ‘Bloomberg’s race to protect NYC from climate change’ it discussed the $19.5 billion plan announced by Michael Bloomberg (thenMayor of NewYork) to ‘prepare for the impacts of a changing climate.’ In his remarks announcing the plan Bloomberg addressed the ‘inevitability that rising Water,Energy, andEnvironment–APrimer176