Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Antarctica Just Registered Its Hottest Temperature Ever

I’m quoting a friend’s powerful voice of truth here:
Look. This is what's going on. Telling non-Trump-supporting voters that we need to VBNMW if Bernie is cheated out of the nomination is a desperate attempt to hang onto one of these icebergs while it melts into the ocean. Seriously.
If we sit back & let Wall Street & the Billionaire Class steal yet another presidency by trying to force yet another centrist who's milquetoast on climate change to oppose Trump, it won't matter whatever happens in November.
Instead of going around frantically demanding that voters vote in a way that anyone with a functioning frontal cortex know ain't gonna happen, while insulting them (which is breathtakingly dumb), get out there & TALK BERNIE to people. Talk Reality. Talk Climate Change & Income/Wealth Disparity & all the other reality-based reasons that we need to show up during the Primaries & do whatever the eff we need to do to get this man into the White House.
Bernie's Green New Deal is the only climate policy out there that will address the enormity of this problem. If you're still thinking, "Well, it's just not pragmatic to try to stop this & save life on earth," then you should really just go crawl down into your hole in the ground & sit out this election with your thumb in your mouth.
A really good friend of mine just texted me with, "Shall we have a drink together & talk about getting rid of Tom Perez?" NO! I'm too busy doing whatever the eff I can do to get Bernie into the White House. Host a debate watch party. Table outside a high-traffic grocery store. Table at a farmer's market. Door-knock. Phone bank. Travel to a swing state. WTH is wrong with us?! We're not going to drink our way out of the cheating by the Democratic Party. Stand up to them!
 
Argentina's Esperanza research station on Antarctica's northern tip is shown in 2014.

By Drew Kann

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Antartica was measured on Thursday at a remote station on the continent's Northern tip, scientists said.

The temperature was nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 Celsius) at Argentina's Esperanza research station, scientists from the country's meteorological agency said.

That surpassed the previous record of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 Celsius) set on March 24, 2015 at the same location. Temperature records from Esperanza date back to 1961.

This means that the temperature at Esperanza was practically identical to what was felt Thursday afternoon in San Diego, California.

To be fair, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. But it's not typical that the temperatures in Antarctica -- one of the coldest places on Earth -- are nearly the same as those in Southern California.   

The record-breaking temperature has not been verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which said it would convene a committee to confirm the measurement. But the WMO's Randall Cerveny said in a release that, "Everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record ..." 

The Antarctic region is heating up rapidly due to heat-trapping gas pollution from humans. And the warming observed here has serious global consequences, especially for the millions of people living on the world's coasts who are vulnerable to sea level rise.

The Antarctic peninsula where the record-breaking temperature was measured is one of the fastest warming places on Earth, with temperatures rising nearly 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) in just the last 50 years, according to the WMO.

Studies have shown that many of Antarctica's massive glaciers are melting rapidly due to global warming. And all told, Antarctica's ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by nearly 200 feet, the WMO says.

A recent study found that warm ocean waters are melting the gigantic Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, which alone has the potential to raise global sea levels more than 10 feet.

And the neighboring Pine Island Glacier has also shown signs of increased instability in the last 25 years.

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