scientists now 'virtually certain' (99.9999%) humans are responsible for climate change

according to a recent report by nature climate change, the steady rise in surface temperatures have grubby fingerprints all over them — and the odds of these fingerprints being anything but human have now officially reached a five-stigma statistic. in other words, there is a one-in-one-million chance that humans are not the cause of global warming.

2018 was the fourth warmest year on record, part of a decade long warming trend
animation courtesy of goddard media studios / scientific visualization studio

earlier this month, the scientific visualization studio at NASA shared the above timelapse of temperatures from 1887 – 2018. according to data, ‘2018 was the fourth warmest year on record, part of a decades-long warming trend.’ gavin schmidt, director at NASA’s goddard institute for space studies, says the average global surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees fahrenheit since the 1880s — a figure driven by, in large part, increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other greenhouse gases caused by human activities.

in december 2018, olafur eliasson brought ‘ice watch’ to london to inspire action against climate change
image © olafur eliasson | read more about the project on designboom here

reuters reports that ‘peter stott of the british met office, who was among the scientists drawing that conclusion and was not involved in monday’s study, said he would favor raising the probability one notch to ‘virtually certain’, or 99-100 percent.’ while the theory that humans caused climate change may now officially hold-true to a 99.9999 percent accuracy, the number of americans who trust this gold-standard is far lesser — 62% as of 2018. hopefully, with media like reuters, futurism and more feverishly citing scientists recent satellite finds, one would hope that the narrative on climate change continues to change.

artist hula warned of climate change with painted murals on melting icebergs
image courtesy of hula (also main image) | read more about the project on designboom here