Ubiquitous Anomaly

Revealing Climate Change

An anomaly is something that occurs rarely; it is something that has very different characteristics compared to what surrounds it. An anomaly is something circumscribed, limited, specific. An anomaly is something to be sought with constancy, attention, and care. An anomaly is not expected to be everywhere. When an anomaly becomes omnipresent, it means that reality has changed radically, which is how climate change has revealed itself to scientists.

For many decades, climate scientists have been engaged in an odyssey through time and space to try to understand the climate of our planet. They observe, collect, record, search, analyze, imagine. Across continents, countries, remote and crowded places, ecosystems of all sizes and types, and various depths and altitudes—from ocean floors to mountain tops and even outer space. They search. And they find. They find anomalies. Wherever a scientist has tried to understand the evolution of our current climate, whatever variable they analyzed, the result has been to find anomalies. A ubiquitous anomaly.

Observing the characteristics of the climate since humans began to extract and burn fossil fuels extensively, and comparing them with data from the past climate, scientists have observed unusual values in every variable, at every point on the globe.

To reconstruct past climate, paleoclimatologists have ventured into polar regions to analyze ice, into the depths of the oceans to study corals and sediments, into pristine forests to analyze ancient trees. In this way, they have been able to understand the evolution of the planet's climate up to several million years ago. Present climate is monitored with a vast network of observatories scattered in every corner of the world, at all latitudes and altitudes, employing sophisticated instruments and space travels, involving people of all races, beliefs, and cultures. Future climate is calculated and analyzed by powerful supercomputers, employing archives of big data, cutting-edge algorithms, and the best scholars from every nation.

Putting together this enormous quantity and variety of variables, the result is always the same. A ubiquitous anomaly. A coherent and consistent abrupt change tirelessly chasing the rapid increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere in recent decades. Through the often-unseen challenges and triumphs of scientific endeavor, “Ubiquitous Anomaly” reveals the essence of Earth’s climate and the urgency of climate change. A call to see, feel, and understand the monumental efforts behind the fight against climate change, making it an essential addition to any discussion on the future of our planet