The Paris climate agreement will be signed today in New York. Today is Earth Day.

Sarcasm about the human prospect seems redundant given the fact that we reached 1.5°C during the first 3 months of 2016 (rounding up).

Global leaders are meeting in New York this week to sign the Paris climate agreement. One of the expressed purposes of the document is to limit warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.” A Climate Central analysis shows that the world will have to dramatically accelerate emissions reductions if it wants to meet that goal. The average global temperature change for the first three months of 2016 was 1.48°C, essentially equaling the 1.5°C warming threshold agreed to by COP 21 negotiators in Paris last December. February exceeded the 1.5°C target at 1.55°C, marking the first time the global average temperature has surpassed the sobering milestone in any month. March followed suit checking in at 1.5°C. January’s mark of 1.4°C, put the global average temperature change from early industrial levels for the first three months of 2016 at 1.48°C.

This is likely a temporary spike due to the exceptionally strong (but now weakening) El Nino. But maybe not. After the 1998 El Nino-driven spike, it took several years to get back to that level of warming.

Limiting warming to 1.5°C was inserted as an "aspirational" goal at the December Paris talks to appease small island nations. Oh, the irony!

Have a nice weekend.