Earth’s climate out of balance
Warning lights are flashing according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization “WMO.”
Mother Earth is being pushed beyond its limits and every key climate indicator is flashing red.
Earth’s energy imbalance, the gap between heat absorbed and heat released, is the highest on record. Our planet is trapping heat faster than it can shed it. The consequences are written into the daily lives of families struggling, as droughts, storms, fires and floods cause havoc around the globe.
Farmers are worried as the heat bakes their crops and now the price of fertilizer and fuel have increase dramatically with the Iran War along with the problems from tariffs.
The WMO report does highlight the significance of record-high concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and notes the effects are visible everywhere, from the effects of a decade of hottest years to the way heat is accumulating deep in the oceans.
We are now able to measure the rate at which energy from the sun enters and leaves our planet. In a stable climate, incoming and outgoing energy are about the same. But activities such as burning fossil fuels, making steel, cement, and plastic along with growing food have upset the balance by pushing levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide to the highest levels in at least 800,000 years.
WMO further states that “improved scientific understanding of our Earth’s energy imbalance is real and will require action.” We also now have 25 years of data from satellite sensors designed to study Earth’s energy balance. Only a small portion of the increased heat is felt directly by humans while over 90% of the increase heats our oceans and melts the glaciers.
WMO data is compiled from weather stations worldwide involving scientists from 190 countries.
Even with the cuts in our federal weather agencies, demand for accurate climate information continues and since WMO is a worldwide organization a lot of data is available. Climate stress is exposing our addiction to fossil fuels and is destabilizing both climate and global security.
WMO strongly feels we need to accelerate a global transition to renewable energy. With the wars raging and supplies of gas and oil being shut off it’s scary to allow our administration to continue to block new supplies of energy that can be produced to help us and the world’s people survive.
We owe it to the world to change our behavior as delay is proving deadly and costly. The way ahead must be grounded in science, common sense and the courage to act.
Simply put, we can do better!