2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #42

Story of the Week… Toon of the Week… Coming Soon on SkS… Climate Feedback Claim Review… SkS Week in Review… Poster of the Week…

Story of the Week…

Earth has warmest September on record, and 2020 may clinch hottest year

Record warmth in Europe and Asia overwhelms a burgeoning La Niña cooling event.

Photo collage-climate scenarios-global climate reports-NOAA

Photo collage by NOAA

The planet just recorded its hottest September since at least 1880, according to three of the authoritative temperature-tracking agencies in the world. The data, most of which was released Wednesday, shows that 2020 is on track to be one of the hottest years on record, with the possibility of tying or breaking the milestone for the hottest year, set in 2016.

In addition, 2020 is likely to be the hottest year when a La Niña event was present in the tropical Pacific Ocean. This climate phenomenon is characterized by cooler-than-average ocean temperatures near the equator in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, and it tends to lower global temperatures slightly. (El Niño events, on the other hand, add even more heat to the planet, causing temperature spikes on top of global warming.)

These trends are all consistent with rapid global warming driven primarily by human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

Click here to access the entire article as originally published on the Washington Post website. 

Earth has warmest September on record, and 2020 may clinch hottest year by Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, Oct 14, 2020

Toon of the Week…

2020 Toon 42 

Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.

Coming Soon on SkS…

  • Debunking Handbook 2020: Prevent misinformation from sticking if you can (John Cook & BaerbelW)
  • Debunking Handbook 2020: The elusive backfire effects (John Cook & BaerbelW)
  • SkS New Research for Week #42 (Doug Bostrom)
  • Debunking Handbook 2020: Debunk often and do it properly (John Cook & BaerbelW) 
  • On climate clock, it’s parts per million, not minutes, that matter most (Bud Ward)
  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #43 (John Hartz)
  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Claim Review…

Climate change can make it harder for the Amazon rainforest to grow back from deforestation, but that does not mean 40% of it will now turn into a savanna

CLAIM: “Amazon near tipping point of switching from rainforest to savannah”

VERDICT: Imprecise

SOURCE: Amazon near tipping point of switching from rainforest to savannah – study by Fiona Harvey, Environment, The Guardian, Oct 5, 2020

KEY TAKE AWAY: Some Amazon forests occur in climates that can also support savannas, and this natural phenomenon is not recent. The stability of rainforests can be influenced, in part, by the ability of trees to regulate rainfall on a regional scale. If disturbed on a large scale, then, some rainforests might regrow as savannas. Severe climate change may result in some regions in the Amazon becoming increasingly unsuitable for rainforests, while other regions are predicted to become more suitable.

REVIEWERS:

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Climate Feedback website. It includes the detailed comments of the above listed expert reviewers.

Climate change can make it harder for the Amazon rainforest to grow back from deforestation, but that does not mean 40% of it will now turn into a savanna, Edited by Nikki Forrester, Claim Reviews, Climate Feedback, Oct 14, 2020 

SkS Week in Review… 

Poster of the Week…

2020 Poster42