Better For The Planet, Your Wallet, and Your Health March 23, 2016March 22, 2016 One of the stories in the book I recommended Monday, explains why February has only 28 days, generally. But how are we to explain how hot it was this year? Or last year? February Breaks Global Temperature Records By Shocking Amount. From the Guardian: February smashed a century of global temperature records by a “stunning” margin, according to data released by NASA. The unprecedented leap led scientists, usually wary of highlighting a single month’s temperature, to label the new record a “shocker” and warn of a “climate emergency”. The NASA data shows the average global surface temperature in February was 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for the month between 1951-1980, a far bigger margin than ever seen before. The previous record, set just one month earlier in January, was 1.15C above the long-term average for that month. “NASA dropped a bombshell of a climate report,” said Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, who analysed the data on the Weather Underground website. “February dispensed with the one-month-old record by a full 0.21C – an extraordinary margin to beat a monthly world temperature record by.” “This result is a true shocker, and yet another reminder of the incessant long-term rise in global temperature resulting from human-produced greenhouse gases,” said Masters and Henson. “We are now hurtling at a frightening pace toward the globally agreed maximum of 2C warming over pre-industrial levels.” Walk or bike. Eat less meat. Vote Democrat. Better for the planet (Congress is currently controlled by Republicans who believe the climate crisis is a hoax) . . . your wallet (both the economy and the stock market do markedly better under Democrats) . . . and your health (Republicans oppose stem cell research, clean-air-and-water regulation, food safety inspection, and — with 62 votes to repeal rather than improve it — affordable healthcare).