“During the June 2011-June 2012 period, each of the 13 consecutive months ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly is 1 in 1,594,323.“
~National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

So – let’s say it again … the odds of our existing heat conditions happening by chance are 1 in 1.5 MILLION.   Let’s compare that to some other odds and probabilities:

• According to the National Weather Service – the odds of being hit by lightning are 1 in 750,000
• Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1
• Odds of getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 649,740 to 1
• Odds of winning an Olympic medal: 662,000 to 1
• Chance of dying from a car accident: 1 in 18,585
• Chance that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,000
• Chance of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319
• Chance of dying from choking on food: 1 in 370,035
• Chance of dying in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country: 1 in 650,000

You’re more likely to get hit by a lightning, flop a royal flush in poker or drown in a bathtub than the odds that our present day heat waves are “randomly occurring”.  You do not have to be a genius to understand this…

As we have written HERE:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is around 2,500 scientists in 130 countries with several other people helping and assisting in the development of materials related to climate change.  In other words – these are the experts that you should fucking listen to.

The IPCC writes:

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most important anthropogenic GHG. Its annual emissions grew by about 80% between
1970 and 2004. The long-term trend of declining CO₂ emissions per unit of energy supplied reversed after 2000.

Atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ (379ppm) and CH₄ (1774ppb) in 2005 exceed by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years. Global increases in CO₂ concentrations are due primarily to fossil fuel use, with land-use change providing another significant but smaller contribution. It is very likely that the observed increase in CH₄ concentration is predominantly due to agriculture and fossil fuel use.

There is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.

NOAA shares this graph showing that 4 of the top 6 hottest 12 months periods from 1895 to present happened in 2012:

But the Ocean is getting hotter too as we’ve talked about HERE:

“And the upper ocean has warmed so much in the past 50 years that its added heat would be enough to warm the lower atmosphere by about 36°C (thankfully a physically impossible feat).”
~ScienceNOW 

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