“What the hell is going on with Global Waming?” President Donald Trump tweeted a few days ago in the midst of a cold snap. “Please come back fast, we need you!”
If Trump had consulted scientists in the government he works for, they could have helped with his basic understanding, as well as his spelling: The warming of the Earth is unmistakable, as seen in a global temperature record that offers no reason for laughter. Experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, according to two separate estimates, one from each agency.
A single year’s temperature readings do not constitute a trend. But there is a trend. The five warmest years have come in the past five years. Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record have come since the beginning of this century. That 2018 did not quite match the record-setting 2016 for warmth is in part because a warming El Niño effect in 2016 raised temperatures even higher than human influence alone would have. By contrast, 2018 saw a cooling La Niña and was still fourth-warmest. The overall direction is relentless: This decade will be warmer than the last, which was warmer than the one before it, and so on.
As more and more of their predictions have come true, scientists have become more confident in their models—and more alarmed. Some effects of climate change remain difficult to predict or plan for.
In the face of ever-rising evidence, the president did not even mention climate change in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
Some Democrats, meanwhile, have announced a “Green New Deal” whose goal seems to be radically reshaping U.S. society and vastly expanding government rather than simply addressing the climate problem, which is hard enough—and important enough. Though not nearly as harmful as Mr. Trump’s rank denialism, engaging in this sort of fantasy also hurts the cause of practically addressing the issue.
The world needs rational U.S. leadership. Unfortunately, global warming will not stop in the meantime.