beginning every conversation with: “were you aware that
the global average temperature for [February 2016] was 2.18 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average[?]
Could that maybe even begin to make the needed difference?
And, if that evoked idiotic deflections about anomalies or some such, be prepared to follow it up with, e.g.,
According to the monthly summary from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, the December-February temperature was also the highest for the season and highest departure from average for any 3-month period on record.
The globally averaged land-surface temperature for February was 4.16 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, breaking the previous record set in 1998 and 2015 (tied) by 1.13 degrees Fahrenheit. The globally averaged sea-surface temperature was 1.46 degrees Fahrenheit above average, also the highest for any February on record.
Data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab shows that the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during February was 800,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average, making it the third-smallest February Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in the 50-year period of record and smallest since 2002. The North American snow cover extent was the 13th smallest on record while the Eurasian snow cover extent was fourth smallest.Arctic sea ice extent also set a record low for the month, and Antarctic sea ice extent was the sixth-smallest in the satellite record, dating back 38 years.
If that all doesn’t scare the shit out of you and/or either plunge you into resolute action or hopeless despair, I have to wonder what it would take. (ISIS terrorism? Pfft. What small potatoes.)