Bill McKibben: 'Entirely unsurprisingly', it's hot

Please sign up for Bill McKibben's newsletter. Today, he says:

"At the most fundamental level, new figures last week showed that atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—reached new all-time highs last year. Here’s how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported the figures:

"While the rise in the three heat-trapping gases recorded in the air samples collected by NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) in 2023 was not quite as high as the record jumps observed in recent years, they were in line with the steep increases observed during the past decade.

The global surface concentration of CO2, averaged across all 12 months of 2023, was 419.3 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 2.8 ppm during the year. This was the 12th consecutive year CO2 increased by more than 2 ppm, extending the highest sustained rate of CO2 increases during the 65-year monitoring record. Three consecutive years of CO2 growth of 2 ppm or more had not been seen in NOAA’s monitoring records prior to 2014. Atmospheric CO2 is now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial levels."

"Entirely unsurprisingly, the planet’s temperature has also continued to rise."

— "By the numbers: Sometimes we need to stop and take stock. Bill McKibben. The Crucial Years. April 10, 2024.

Yes, we're using renewable energy sources, but — he says — we need to more than double the pace at which we're making more renewable energy available so that we can replace our use of fossil fuels.

"Methane levels show no “hint of a decline”, and the continued rise is “incompatible” with climate goals, the lead study author tells Carbon Brief." Great in-depth reporting on all things methane by @orladwyer.carbonbrief.org and Yanine Quiroz www.carbonbrief.org/qa-why-metha...

[image or embed]

— Giuliana Viglione (@giulianaviglione.bsky.social) September 10, 2024 at 1:09 PM

This should be bigger news: AI is *revitalizing the fossil fuels industry.* Bloomberg called it a "surprising resurgence" in gas-fired power plants when we were on the brink of a transition to clean energy. And big tech has nothing to say about it. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-revi...

[image or embed]

— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant.bsky.social) September 18, 2024 at 1:12 PM