2016 was the hottest year in recorded history, say the world's top scientists. And a Canadian climatologist says this year will probably be a steamer, too.
NASA, the United Kingdom's Met Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released reports last Jan. 18 confirming what many researchers long suspected: that 2016 was the hottest year globally on record.
Global temperatures are now about 1.1 C above pre-industrial levels, the Met Office estimates. The recent Paris Agreement on climate change seeks to limit global warming to no more than 2 C over pre-industrial levels and aims to keep it under 1.5 C.
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Space Institute for Space Studies and noted climate scientist, told Carbon Brief that this was the third year in a row that the Earth has set a record for hottest year ever.
"This is a very unusual set of occurrences."
Schmidt said that about 10 per cent of this temperature increase was due to El Niño, with the rest due to long-term warming trends driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
Researchers were predicting as early as last fall that 2016 would break the record, as every month between May 2015 and September 2016 had been the warmest month on record, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. Canada saw its fourth warmest year on record last year, with the Prairies seeing their second.
"We saw the impact of that in Fort McMurray," Phillips said, with dry conditions contributing to this year's massive fire.
"No question about it, it was a warm year," he said.
Canada is seeing the impact of this warming in the form of floods, forest fires, melting ice and the spread of the mountain pine beetle, Phillips said. It's also resulted in more wild weather.
"That is a bit terrifying," he said, as everything we do – from planting crops to taking vacations – depends on predictable weather.
2017 probably won't set a new record as there's no longer an El Niño going on, Phillips said. But due to the massive amount of heat in the world's oceans and past trends, he predicts this year will likely make the top five in terms of temperatures.
Climate warming might mean less snow and winter, but it also means more extreme cold snaps, said Thomas Barr, managing partner with Edmonton's NuEnergy Group and a St. Albert resident.
"I'm concerned to be honest with you. I'm not sure people are aware of the impact this may have on future generations and on the planet as a whole."
Barr said one way to act on climate change is to become more aware of how you use energy, which often results in greenhouse gas emissions.
"Climate change is not a myth. It's real, and we should all be doing our part in evaluating how we live and how we exist and to reduce our impact on fossil fuel use."
The NOAA's analysis is available at www.ncdc.noaa.gov.
Preschoolers will soon get to learn to read on the banks of the Sturgeon River through a new year-round outdoor classroom.
Former St. Albert Public teacher Lori Waters-Sim is inviting residents to an open house this month on the new St. Albert Nature School.
Research suggests that hands-on experiential learning leads to better retention, Waters-Sim said. This preschool, which she co-founded, will build on that principle by having students learn literacy and numeracy outdoors along the Sturgeon River near the baseball diamonds. While students will be able to duck into the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association (SAMBA) clubhouse should weather require it, the plan is to spend as much class time as possible outdoors.
"The kids will build forts out of sticks or write their name in the snow," she said.
"Instead of talking about concepts, they're actually living them."
The school's aim will be to get kids outdoors so they can reconnect with nature, Waters-Sim said.
"If kids don't feel connected to nature, we can't ask them to save it."
Waters-Sim said she hoped to open the school this September with 20 kids.
The open house is at 10 a.m. Jan. 28 at the SAMBA clubhouse. Visit stalbertnatureschool.ca for details.
