CLAIM: A post is trending on Twitter with a claim that global temperatures were higher 100,000 years ago than today, even without industrialization.
“Global temperatures were higher 100,000 years ago than today, without industrialization.
🦕 Dinosaurs carbon emissions, probably🤡,” read the tweet.
The post, which was made on Oct. 4, 2022 has garnered 323 retweets, 933 likes, and many comments, as of Oct 12.
Global temperatures were higher 100,000 years ago than today, without industrialization.
🦕 Dinosaurs carbon emissions, probably🤡 pic.twitter.com/skzhOLgkLM— Dr. Avi Dascalu, MD, PhD (@AviDascalu) December 4, 2022
VERIFICATION: In earth science, global surface temperature (GST; sometimes referred to as global mean surface temperature, GMST, or global average surface temperature) according to Science Direct is calculated by averaging the temperature at the surface of the sea and air temperature over land.
NASA, America’s civil space programme and the global leader in space exploration, explained that global temperature mainly depends on how much energy the planet receives from the Sun and how much it radiates back into space.
Global temperature records, according to NASA, started around 1880, about 142 years ago because observations did not sufficiently cover enough of the planet prior to that time.
CarbonBrief asserted that the instrumental temperature record shows the signal of rising temperatures that emerged in the tropical ocean in about the 1950s.
Current Results noted that the earth’s average temperature rose by 0.8 °C (1.5 °F) during the last century. That change, it said is in the mean global temperature that has been calculated for each year since 1880.
This history of average global temperature, it stated is based on data gathered around the world at weather stations, on ships, and by satellites.
It further said that the world has mainly grown hotter since 1980, at a rate of nearly 0.2 °C (0.36 °F) per decade.
The Current Results state that the annual global temperature from 2000 to 2009 was 0.61 °C (1.1 °F) higher than the average temperature for 1951 to 1980; and if the current rate of increase continues, the world will warm by 2 °C (3.6 °F) in the next century.
United Nations said that the warmest seven years have all been since 2015; the top three being 2016, 2019, and 2020. An exceptionally strong El Niño event occurred in 2016, which contributed to record global average warming.
CONCLUSION: The claim that global temperatures were higher 100,000 years ago than today, even without industrialisation is misleading and FALSE. There is no sufficient evidence to support the claim.
This fact-check was produced by BONews Service with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.