As if we needed it, more irrefutable evidence of global warming trends was published last week in a New York Times report on the findings of NASA and NOAA. In sharp relief, the evidence shows that warming trends continued in 2017, making it one of the hottest years on record even without being an El Niño year (generally speaking, weather pattern changes during El Niño lead to warmer overall temperatures). The 2017 numbers are alarming and foreboding, but they also must be a prompt to evaluate our environmental priorities and remember the difference between weather and climate.
When President Trump tweeted that east coast states experiencing freezing temperatures over New Year’s “could use a little bit of that old Global Warming,” he made the common mistake of conflating weather patterns and climate patterns, a distinction that NASA’s website explains in elementary language. A frigid New Year’s on the east coast is a weather event, happening over a short period of time. There can still be cold days in the midst of overall warming climate trends, which take place over years at a time. No doubt, many Americans across the U.S. nodded in agreement at Trump’s tweet, falling victim to the same misunderstanding. Taking a minute to nicely explain the difference between weather and climate is an easy way to spread the word when one is found in an aggravating argument about global warming.
Trump’s tweet also mocked the idea that the U.S. would pay “billions of dollars” to confront climate issues, but this has no reason to be mocked. The 2017 report details how global warming is on track to severely affect ecosystems globally and therefore agriculture and health as well. More regulations on industry and individual emissions now may have a short-term negative impact on the economy, but they are necessary if we want to protect a natural environment, the destruction of which would have long-term negative impact on the economy (as well as health and safety). It goes without saying that President Trump must not repeal the Clean Power Plan, as has been proposed, and must not withdraw from the Paris Agreement. These two visible federal plans are essential to the U.S.’s way forward on climate policy.
We should expect the climate report at the end of 2018 to be even more catastrophic if serious action is not taken over the coming year. On the individual level, make efforts to drive less and turn lights off, but also be sure you prioritize environmental issues when it comes to your voting record. Don’t make the same silly mistake as our president and be fooled by uncommonly cold days, either—there is a difference between weather and climate, and the more people who understand that, the more clearly we will see the seriousness of this issue.
