Daily Climate Links: 4/20/2016

The 'Absolutely Disturbing' New Normal: Earth Just Smashed Another Climate Record. Common Dreams.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday that March 2016 was the warmest March since records began in 1880.
It also marked an 11-month of streak of record-breaking global temperatures.
And at 1.22°C (2.20°F) above the 20th century average of 12.7°C (54.9°F), March 2016 distinguished itself from all 1,635 months on record by having the highest monthly temperature departure.

Flirting with the 1.5°C threshold. Climate Central.

the Paris agreement was to limit warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.”

however, the vast majority of temperature data that is reported is not compared to pre-industrial temperatures; for instance, NOAA, above, references current temp vs 20th century average and at other times compares vs 1981-2010 base period, while NASA takes "the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures"

so, the Climate Central authors took raw data to try to correct for this, but even they are comparing to temperatures that are NOT pre-industrial; they use 1881 as their reference, but 1750 is the commonly-acknowledged start of the industrial era; there may not have been much temperature change from 1750  to 1881, but keep those different time periods in mind when reading about latest temperature records and comparing to IPCC goal

How Earth itself has dramatically upped the stakes for the Paris climate accord. Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis, Washington Post. 

Germans pay extra for clean energy — is it worth it? David Roberts, grist.

Got Denmark envy? Wait until you hear about its energy policies. David Roberts, vox.

Mitsubishi admits to flawed fuel emissions tests. BusinessGreen.

Electric Cars: Pros and Cons, and Unknowables. Yale Climate Connections.

The big buzz among car junkies these days involves AVs, autonomous or driverless vehicles. Forces behind it are numerous, including automakers' having lots to lose ... or gain.