The “climate spiral” that certifies global warming

Climate change by its very definition is “the change in the state of the Earth’s climate system.” This means that throughout history, the Earth has undergone several such changes.

Some modifications that have been gradual or abrupt and that over the decades and centuries have been due to various causes, such as solar radiation, periods of intense volcanism or meteorite impacts. However, the last of them, the most recent and the one that has been taking place recently, is “anthropogenic and is mainly related to the intensification of the greenhouse effect due to industrial emissions from the burning of fossil fuels”, all the experts agree. experts.

In fact, in the last 650,000 years, there have been seven cycles of glacial advances and retreats, with the last ice age ending abruptly around 11,700 years ago, ushering in the modern climatic age and civilization. human.

Now, however, “the effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible on the timescale of people living today, and will worsen over the next few decades,” NASA warns. The average temperature of the earth’s surface has increased 1.18 degrees Celsius since the end of the 19th century.

climate spiral

The increase in the temperature of the earth’s surface is a reality in the database of the US space agency. Its history compiled and accessible at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) indicates that global temperature anomalies are more frequent in recent decades. In this graphic, NASA shows the average degrees of the surface since the 1980s. Whites and blues indicate cooler temperatures, while oranges and reds show warmer temperatures.

As time goes by, global temperatures have warmed mainly due to human activities as time has passed.

In the last third of the 19th century, it was shown that carbon dioxide and other gases are capable of trapping heat and thus increasing the earth’s temperature. An evidence to which other evidence is added, such as the data from the satellites that monitor the planet.

“These technological advances have allowed scientists to have a global vision; They have collected many types of information about the Earth and its climate on a global scale,” NASA experts point out. “This dataset, collected over many years, reveals signs of a changing climate,” he adds. “There is no doubt that rising levels of greenhouse gases cause the Earth to be warming.”

Planet temperatures image. /

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For several years, NASA in its work and desire to disclose the effects of climate change has represented the increase in temperatures in the form of a “climate spiral”, a visualization designed by climatologist Ed Hawkins of the National Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Reading. Image that increasingly resembles a tornado that does not stop growing in its highest part, which represents the most recent months, and that on several occasions exceeds the 1ºC limit.

Climate spiral. /

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The last nine years are among the 10 hottest on record. According to NASA, the past 2021 ranks as the sixth hottest year that “dates back more than a century,” they say.