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Why Were 2023 and 2024 So Hot?

Union of Concerned Scientists

The year 2023 was by far the warmest in Earths recorded history, and perhaps in the past 100,000 years , shattering the previous record set in 2016 by 0.27C (0.49F). Albedo is the total reflection of incoming solar radiation by Earth. But why were 2023 and 2024 so warm? What is albedo?

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WMO: Update on 2023/4 Anomalies

Real Climate

As you can see though, the size of the residual for 2023 was comparable to 2016 and 1998 (years that started with large El Nio events), and 2024 had the highest residual in decades despite the recent El Nio only being a moderate event. Indeed, we estimate that the contribution from the solar cycle has been comparably large.

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The definitive CO2/CH4 comparison post

Real Climate

The radiative forcing from these changes in concentrations can be easily calculated using standard formulas (from Etminan et al, 2016 which supersede the slightly simpler ones from IPCC TAR), as about 2 W/m 2 for the CO 2 change and 0.65 W/m 2 for CH 4. W/m<sup>2</sup> (to about 60% of the CO 2 effect since 1750). References.

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New misguided interpretations of the greenhouse effect from William Kininmonth

Real Climate

He made some rather strange claims, such as that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) allegedly should have forgotten that the earth is a sphere because “ most absorption of solar radiation takes place over the tropics, while there is excess emission of longwave radiation to space over higher latitudes ”. 679-688, 2016.

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AR6 of the best

Real Climate

Now however, the updates to the historical warming , the use of four datasets instead of one, and of course, the series of record breaking years subsequently (2014, 2015, 2016/2020), the issue of variability in decadal trends is no longer so salient. 1981) which can be seen here. The radiative forcing bar chart now converted to temperature.

Sea Level 361
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HotSpots H2O: In Chile’s Lithium Mines, Climate and Environment Are Dueling Priorities

Circle of Blue

Caption: The Salar de Atacama salt works in Chile in 2016. Against the backdrop of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the Salar de Atacama Mine radiates with a futuristic blue light—its cerulean pools glow like tessellated computer screens, a stark contrast to the muted landscape that surrounds them. Photo © NASA Johnson /Flickr Creative Commons.

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DEP: PA Fracking Operations Sent Nearly 236,000 Cubic Feet Of Radioactive TENORM Waste To Low-Level Radioactive Waste Facilities For Disposal In 2021 - 811,070 since 2016

PA Environment Daily

Rich Janati, DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection, explained, “TENORM is mainly from fracking operations, a lot of it in Pennsylvania. The Appalachian LLRW Compact includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia. It contains radium with a 1,600 year half-life.” Read more here. Read more here.

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