Posted on 28 April 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here endless subplots definitely depend upon one central element in the unfolding drama of our grand physics accident: the dominant story mechanic is that we're changing Earth's climate. This leads to outcomes. One way of seeing this is via the abstraction of statistics, while another perspective is that of individual experiences each of which is only an anecdote but together lead us back to statistics. Our story of the week is Carbon Brief's annual summary State of the climate: 2024 off to a record-warm start:

This year is shaping up to either match or surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record.

Global temperatures have been exceptionally high over the past three months – at around 1.6C above pre-industrial levels – following the peak of current El Niño event at the start of 2024.

The past 10 months have all set new all-time monthly temperature records, though the margin by which new records have been set has fallen from around 0.3C last year to 0.1C over the first three months of 2024. 

April 2024 is on track to extend this streak to 11 record months in a row.

Author Zeke Hausfather continues this informative summary by delivering a complete numerical rundown of where we stand with regard to global surface temperature. In sum we're we're living a spike. Our shock is belated. Expert opinion suggests we're  experiencing another wiggle in a upward-trending graph. We've seen this before in historical records, only less remarked given we're only now having our first brush with 1.5 °C of overall warming.  In any case, the directed herky jerky plot of global warming inevitably unfolds a bevy of subplots exemplified by other stories from this week's roundup, "anecdotes" in the grand scheme of global temperature records:

• The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia
• Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says
• 'We were in disbelief': Antarctica is behaving in a way we've never seen before. Can it recover?
• Warming climate is putting more metals into Colorado's mountain streams

This shaggy dog story will continue to proliferate and evolve while we wait to reach our next record year. 

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before April 21

• Climate change is also a chance to transform education in America - again, TheHill, Andrés Henríquez.
• The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia, Environment & Energy, The Conversation AU, by Joe Fontaine, George Matusick, Jatin Kala, Kerryn Hawke & Nate Anderson.
• A Planetary Crisis Awaits the Next President, New York Times, Guest Essay by Stephen Markley.

April 21

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024.
• 100% wind and solar is coming!, "Just have a think" on Youtube, Dave Borlace.
• Climate Doom Is Out. `Apocalyptic Optimism` Is In., NYT, Alexis Soloski. Focusing on disaster hasn’t changed the planet’s trajectory. Will a more upbeat approach show a way forward?

April 22

• Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says, The Independent News, Jamey Keaten. Two top climate monitoring organizations are reporting that Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average
• We were in disbelief': Antarctica is behaving in a way we've never seen before. Can it recover?, Livescience, Ben Turner. Antarctic sea ice has been disappearing over the last several summers. Now, climate scientists are wondering whether it will ever come back.
• Europe`s warming up at nearly twice the global average, says new report, The Verge - Science Posts, Amrita Khalid. In 2023, the continent experienced extreme heatwaves, severe flooding, and its largest ever recorded wildfire.
• Good News and Nothing But, The Crucial Years, Bill McKibben. One Day Only--Happy Earth Day
• Can individuals make an impact on climate change? Here`s where local experts say to start, Yahoo News - Latest News , Michelle Alfini.

• Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New Milestone, The Upshot, New York Times, Aatish Bhatia.

April 23

• How to talk to a climate doomer (even if that doomer is you), Yale Climate Connections, Daisy Simmons. It’s not too late to tackle climate change, but sometimes it sure feels that way.
• State of the climate: 2024 off to a record-warm start, Carbon Brief, Zeke Hausfather. This year is shaping up to either match or surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record.
• A powerful volcano is erupting. Here’s what that could mean for weather and climate, Climate, CNN, Mary Gilbert.
• Warming climate is putting more metals into Colorado's mountain streams, Phys.org, Liza Lester.
• Your most pressing climate questions, NYT, Ryan McCarthy. Introducing Ask NYT Climate, where we’ll explore how climate intersects with your everyday life
• Africa’s megacities threatened by heat, floods and disease – urgent action is needed to start greening and adapt to climate change, Climate, The Conversation AF, April 23, 2024, Meelan Thondoo.
• Earth Day reflections from the next generation, Environmental Health News (EHN, Editors. "This week we're featuring essays from Houston-area eighth graders to hear what the youth think about the state of our planet."

April 24

• Yellowstone Lake's weird resistance to climate change could be about to crack, Livescience, Ben Turner. Yellowstone's lake's ice cover has remained unaffected by increasing temperatures due to increased snowfall. But this could make it vulnerable to a sudden shift.

April 25

• `Outrageous` climate activists get in the faces of politicians and oil bosses - will it work?, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. As the climate crisis has deepened, protesters have become more confrontational – and their ambitions have grown
• Pinning down climate change's role in extreme weather, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. and did climate change contribute to the flooding in Dubai?
• We might be closer to changing course on climate change than we realized, Climate, Vox, Umair Irfan. "Greenhouse gas emissions might have already peaked. Now they need to fall — fast."
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. A weekly overview of research on matters of human-caused climate change.

April 26

• Climate change could become the main driver of biodiversity decline by mid-century, iDiv, iDiv. Press release from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig about the largest modelling study of its kind, published in Science
• Scientists and comedians join forces to get climate crisis message across, The Guardian, Jeremy Plester. Video series launched in which comics translate climate science into down-to-earth language
• The Paris Effect: Human Rights in Light of International Climate Goals and Commitments, Climate Law Blog, Jannika Jahn.
• Nixon Advisers` Climate Research Plan: Another Lost Chance on the Road to Crisis, Inside Climate News, Marianne Lavelle. A 1971 plan for a global carbon dioxide monitoring network never came to fruition. The proposal is detailed in a document newly unearthed by the National Security Archive.
• Climate skeptic dismisses severity of Great Barrier Reef bleaching, AFP Fact Check, Manon Jacob. Scientists predict recent bleaching at Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be the worst on record, but skeptics online dismiss the damage by claiming coral populations are at a record high.

April 27

• Fact Brief - Is Antarctica gaining land ice?, Skeptical Science, SkS Team.
• They turned cattle ranches into tropical forest - then climate change hit, The Verge, Justine Calma. They brought forests back to life in Costa Rica. Their next challenge? Restoring ecosystems in a warming world.

If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!