New study reveals humans are accelerating global crisis faster than ever before: 'Pretty widespread'

New research determined that the rate at which the planet is heating has increased, the Guardian reported. 

What's happening?

It's not "new news" that average temperatures are climbing.

However, a newly published entry in Geophysical Research Letters carried an alarming finding about how that warming is accelerating.

Scientists had previously observed an ongoing uptick in "extreme heat," with several of the past few years breaking heat records. But researchers weren't sure whether factors like El Niño, volcanic activity, or solar disruptions influenced the data.

The letter's authors "applied a noise-reduction method to filter out the estimated effect of nonhuman factors in five major datasets" scientists rely on to track average temperatures, as the Guardian explained.

After filtering the data, they identified an acceleration that began in 2013 or 2014. 

Previously, the rate at which temperatures rose hovered at about 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade from 1970 through 2015. In the past decade, however, that rate climbed to 0.35 C (0.63 F).

"The resulting adjusted and thus less 'noisy' data show that there has been acceleration with over 98% confidence, with faster warming over the last 10-plus years than during any previous decade," the authors concluded.

Why is this concerning?

In an attached summary, the authors emphasized that their newly published research was the first to demonstrate that "outliers" weren't driving the sharp increase in warming.

The increases observed by the researchers might appear small, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that seemingly tiny jumps can be pivotal.

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"Given the tremendous size and heat capacity of the global oceans, it takes a massive amount of added heat energy to raise Earth's average surface temperature even a small amount," NOAA warned.

Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, who wasn't involved with the new research, cited potential variables, acknowledging that researchers had increasingly come to a consensus that the planet is becoming far hotter, far faster. 

"There is now pretty widespread — if not quite universal — agreement that there has been a detectable acceleration in warming in recent years," Hausfather said, per the Guardian.

Outside of research laboratories and journal articles, the impacts of shifting climate patterns have been an escalating presence over the past few years, particularly extreme weather.

As temperatures rise, atmospheric evaporation intensifies a range of weather patterns. Extreme weather isn't just a record-breaking heat wave so severe that dozens were sickened; it's also unprecedented snow, devastating floods, and worsening wildfires. 

According to the Guardian, the rate of acceleration was "higher than scientists have seen since they started systematically taking the Earth's temperature in 1880." 

What's being done about it?

"Stopping this trend is in our hands: Studies show that global warming will stop around the time humanity reaches zero CO2 emissions, but it can hardly be reversed," the authors wrote, their conclusion equal parts sobering and empowering.

Individuals can limit their harmful carbon pollution through actions like taking public transportation or even switching to an electric vehicle, but pressuring lawmakers to act can effect change at scale.

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