Mother Nature to Humans, “It’s hot!”

by Stuart Shapiro

Back in February, climate skeptics used the snowstorms to mock supporters of climate change.  The skeptics are very quiet now.  As Climate Progress notes we are coming through one of the hottest Junes on record.

Interestingly, June was tied for the third hottest on record for NASA, but was essentially tied for the hottest June in the RSS satellite record (and second hottest in the constantly tweaked UAH satellite dataset).

Although I’m sure it’s just another coincidence, but Rutgers University’s Global Snow Lab again reports a record low snow cover in the entire northern hemisphere for the month of June (what appears to be a long term trend):

One snowstorm or one heat wave tells us nothing about global climate trends.  But the huge preponderance of the data points to a planet that is rapidly warming.  And the longer the world waits to deal with it, the more expensive the solution will become.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.