Friday was a memorable day. It was reported yesterday that globally, February was the ninth successive month to reach record-breaking temperatures. February 2024 was 1.7C warmer than pre-industrial times. It was also reported that the world’s sea surface is the hottest on record.
Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of World Meteorological Organisation, said: “Heat-trapping greenhouse gases are unequivocally the main culprit, with CO2 concentrations being the highest for at least 2,000,000 years.”
Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, said: “The reality is our world has never, in its entire history, heated as rapidly as it is doing now. Nor have greenhouse gases ever seen such a precipitous hike . . . we’re experiencing a heating episode that is probably unique in the last 4.6 billion years.”
Hannah Cloke OBE, Professor of Hydrology, University of Reading, said if the evidence was ignored “our children’s generation and all those that follow, will be justified in pointing to the people living in 2024 and cursing our reckless stupidity”.
Also yesterday, New Zealand Resources Minister Shane Jones granted a petroleum exploration consent off the Taranaki coast. Apparently, the easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.
