the brilliantly leaping gazelle

For any reader who thought my yesterdays post was unduly pessimistic, here is something I spotted in yesterdays Guardian,

Decade of ‘exceptional’ heat likely to be hottest on record, experts say

World Meteorological Organization says 2019 is likely to be second or third warmest year ever

The last decade has been one of “exceptional” heat around the world, and was almost certainly the hottest on record, while the oceans have also warmed to record levels and grown markedly more acidic, the World Meteorological Organization has said.

Am I shocked by this? In a word, no. Because this is a wholly predictable effect, one that happens when you take a problem of hydra like magnitude and first ignore it, then claim more research needs to done, and then when the research is done, debate what the research actually means.

The article abounds with bad news. It ends with this nugget,

During the past year, the upper levels of the oceans, measured since the 1950s, have exceeded previous records so far this year, and the ocean experienced about 1.5 months of unusually warm temperatures, with large areas of the north-east Pacific showing severe heatwaves. The Arctic sea ice minimum in September was the third smallest on record. The final version of the report will be published in March.

Ah. Just what we need. Another report telling us something we already sort of know, but confirms it with details, examples, graphs, experts. Grim, to be sure, yet provides the faintest glimmer of hope that we can avoid the inevitable.

One question though. If we didn’t do it then, why do we imagine we’ll do it now?