[mapleoin]

https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/global-an...

> According to different observational records of global average annual near-surface (land and ocean) temperature, the last decade (2008–2017) was 0.89 °C to 0.93 °C warmer than the pre-industrial average, which makes it the warmest decade on record. Of the 17 warmest years on record, 16 have occurred since 2000. The year 2017 was one of the world’s three warmest years on record together with the years 2016 and 2015.

> The average annual temperature for the European land area for the last decade (2008–2017) was between 1.6 °C and 1.7 °C above the pre-industrial level, which makes it the warmest decade on record. In Europe, 2017 was colder than the previous 3 years.

[zerealshadowban]

What exactly is "the pre-industrial average"? does that correspond to the Little Ice Age? why is that a good reference point, or baseline for comparison?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

[i6mi6]

But 100-200 years is very little time for comparison isn't it? Is there any presumed data on what it was before that?

[AndrewDucker]

Loads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_temperature_record

Do bear in mind that most of the costs of global warming are based around:

1) It is happening much faster than we can cope with. If it was happening over 10,000 years then we'd slowly adapt. Or die out. One or the other.

2) Our cities are mostly built on coastlines, and will therefore be hit dramatically by severe weather and by sea rises.

[skywhopper]

Plenty if you care to look. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_temperature_record for more recent temperature evidence on the scale of a few thousand years, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record for geologic evidence of temperature patterns over the past half-billion years.

This graph shows just how far off the norm we are for the past two millenia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_temperature_record#/med...

[fallingfrog]

Now, it's kind of silly to keep asking HN people to google things for you. But:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m...

[ainiriand]

100-200 years is pretty fast when compared to how slowly climate moves in one direction or the other. Also those 100-200 years are the same in which human instrialization took place. Measuring temperature in a global scale is a very daunting task and it is open to interpretations by negationists and reactionaries, but you can look for pictures of the last 30 years in the North Pole. The Arctic is going to be open to navigation soon. You can also ask the climate experts, we have to rely on them, and the vast majority of them are predicting a similar effect.

[Scarblac]

First you yourself start talking about "the last decade", and now one or two centuries isn't long enough.

You also say you think the last decade seemed colder, the reply you got was that 16 of the 17 hottest years since recording began were after 2000. But you ignore that part of the reply.

You are working for the forces that want to stop our mitigation of the problem, you are the enemy.

[jeffreyrogers]

Telling people "you are the enemy" certainly isn't going to win them over to your side.

[Scarblac]

People who are stirring up discussions and ignore the answers have an agenda, they are trying to make it look like there is still serious disagreement about the existence and causes of climate change, because they want to hinder mitigation.

It is no use to try to win them over, that's not why they're arguing.

[tremon]

True, but clearly labeling people as "the enemy" might help others decide who to believe.

[jeffreyrogers]

Calling someone "the enemy" doesn't help people decide who to believe. Belief about scientific topics like global warming should be based on facts not in-group/out-group thinking.

[mapleoin]

This might help: https://xkcd.com/1732/

[refurb]

Interesting. So there was a +4C change in average temperature even before the industrial age began? Didn't know that.

[morsch]

Over the span of 15000 to 20000 years.