It’s official! 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded in the past 150 years (since records were kept), and maybe in the last 100,000 years if you believe the core samples. At 1.48C hotter than preindustrial times we are getting dangerously close to the 1.50 degrees set as a goalpost by the international community. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main driver of global warming. But last year several other natural and human-linked factors also helped boost temperatures. It might be time to ditch the “Climate Change” moniker and just start calling it what it really is: Global Warming.
Biden Administration to Fine Oil and Gas Companies for Excess Methane. Methane is one of the worst global warming gasses at 100 times the heat trapping capacity of CO2, although it is relatively fleeting. A plan to impose a fee of $900 to $1,500 on every excess ton of methane emissions would be the first federal price on greenhouse gas pollution. Scientists say this move is the most effective short term plan to reduce the pace of global warming. The fee is part of the admin’s 2022 landmark climate bill, aptly named the Inflation Reduction Act.
Drought Affects a Quarter of Humanity, U.N. Says, Disrupting Lives Globally. Rising temperatures and changes to weather patterns are drying out agriculture centers around the World, causing famine and widespread global migrations as people race to live somewhere habitable. While large industrialized (rich) countries continue to burn fossile fuels and emit giga tons of CO2 in the atmosphere, heating it up, the poorest people in the World suffer the most. Deserts are turning up everywhere, limiting farming and exacerbating already high costs of foot production.