Euronews, writing in a recent article titled “Unprecedented in the past 3.6 million years’: How human-made climate change is making days longer,’” claims that climate change is slowly but measurably altering Earth’s rotation, lengthening the day by about 1.33 milliseconds over a century, implying troubling consequences ahead for society and the planet because it is “unprecedented in the past 3.6 million years.” This is patently and demonstrably false. Variations in Earth’s length of day (LOD) of this magnitude or greater are routine and naturally occurring. The 1.33 millisecond variation poses no biological or societal threat, and technologies tied to time can be adjusted, if necessary, to account for the change.
Euronews’ article relies on a recent study suggesting that melting ice and mass redistribution are influencing Earth’s rotation. While redistribution of mass can affect angular momentum of the spinning Earth, which is basic physics, the framing of the article implies something unprecedented or destabilizing. The historical record shows otherwise.
Earth’s rotation has never been perfectly constant. It fluctuates continuously due to multiple natural mechanisms operating on different timescales.
Seasonal redistribution of mass in the atmosphere and oceans adds about 0.5–1 millisecond annually, as wind systems shift and ocean currents adjust. Interannual climate patterns such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) contribute an additional ±0.3–0.5 millisecond variation. None of these processes are new, and none are evidence of planetary instability.
In that context, a 1.33-millisecond shift sits squarely within the range of normal background variability, and is nothing to be concerned about.
The long-term trend — Earth gradually slowing due to tidal friction from the Moon — is also well understood. Based on 2,500 years of historical astronomical eclipse observations, science estimates the average increase in LOD at approximately +1.7 to +1.8 milliseconds per century. That gradual braking has been operating for hundreds of millions of years. It is not caused by industrial emissions, nor is it accelerating catastrophically.
Even more inconvenient for alarmist framing is the fact that Earth has recently sped up.
From the mid-2010s through the early 2020s, Earth’s rotation accelerated rather than slowed. June 29, 2022 was the shortest day ever recorded in the atomic timekeeping era — approximately 1.59 milliseconds shorter. That record underscores how dynamic Earth’s rotation is and how multiple forces, including core-mantle interactions and atmospheric changes, compete to influence it.
If climate change were driving a simple, monotonic slowing of the planet’s spin, we would not expect to see record-setting shorter days in recent years.
The biological implications of a 1.33-millisecond change are effectively nonexistent. Humans, animals, and plants rely on circadian rhythms tuned to approximately 24 hours — not to thousandths of a second. A millisecond represents 0.001 seconds. In percentage terms, 1.33 milliseconds is roughly 0.000015 percent of a day. There is no plausible physiological pathway by which such a miniscule adjustment could disrupt ecosystems or human health. No living entity can detect or be affected by a thousandth of a second change in the length of a day.
Technologically, the situation is equally unremarkable. Modern systems already account for irregularities in Earth’s rotation. Since 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to keep atomic clocks synchronized with Earth’s variable spin. Because of recent rotational acceleration, scientists are even discussing the possibility of implementing a negative leap second — subtracting one second for the first time.
According to Earth orientation data maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), decadal fluctuations driven primarily by angular momentum exchange between the solid Earth and its fluid outer core routinely produce variations of about 3–4 milliseconds. These are the largest short-term departures from the long-term trend and have been occurring for as long as we have had precise measurements.
Satellite navigation systems, astronomical observatories, telecommunications networks, and financial trading platforms all rely on precise timekeeping. They already ingest continuous Earth orientation parameter updates from IERS and adjust accordingly. The IERS monitors the rotation of the Earth, which is irregular, providing data on (the difference between Terrestrial Time and Universal Time) and potential leap seconds. These systems routinely handle corrections far larger than 1 millisecond without disruption.
Consider also that society adjusts clocks by one hour every year in regions that observe daylight saving time; a shift 3.6 million times larger than the change Euronews highlights. Leap years add an entire day. Leap seconds add or subtract a full second. By comparison, a millisecond-scale variation is trivial.
The total peak-to-peak variation in Earth’s LOD over the past century — combining effects such as tidal braking, core-mantle coupling, seasonal atmospheric effects, ENSO variability, and we find LOD acceleration has been on the order of 5–8 milliseconds. These variations occurred long before modern concerns about climate change and reflect the complex physics of a rotating, fluid planet with a molten core, dynamic oceans, shifting winds, and gravitational interactions with the Moon.
Earth is not a rigid clock. It is a complex and variable geophysical system. Presenting a 1.33-millisecond change as evidence of climate destabilization creates a false narrative of crisis. Yes, mass redistribution, whether from ice melt, atmospheric changes, or ocean circulation can influence rotational dynamics. But that influence is small, embedded within larger natural variability, and well within the bounds that scientists and engineers have been tracking and adjusting for decades.
The practical consequence of LOD variability is careful timekeeping, something modern civilization already excels at managing. A millisecond does not threaten human biology. It does not endanger plant life. It does not destabilize ecosystems, and it does not overwhelm modern technology.
If Euronews had bothered to even do a modicum of research into this phenomenon, they’d know their story is based on misrepresentation of the cause of a change that can’t be sensed and promotes false alarm. Instead, they went the “click bait” route, choosing narrative over truth; badly misleading their readers in the process.
Anthony Watts is a senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute. Watts has been in the weather business both in front of, and behind the camera as an on-air television meteorologist since 1978, and currently does daily radio forecasts. He has created weather graphics presentation systems for television, specialized weather instrumentation, as well as co-authored peer-reviewed papers on climate issues. He operates the most viewed website in the world on climate, the award-winning website wattsupwiththat.com.
Originally posted at ClimateREALISM
“These are the largest short-term departures from the long-term trend and have been occurring for as long as we have had precise measurements.”
No. They have been occurring since the earth was first made. They have been measured in recent times.
We’ve been precisely measuring (trying to anyway) since 1500BC. (I don’t care for the new nomenclature BCE)
Since then the day has lengthened by precisely by 59.5 – 63 MILLISECONDS. (+/-0.001293056ms)
…
(0.001293056 milliseconds is their magical 1.33/3,600,000*3500)
I don’t care for the new nomenclature BCE
My question about CE and BCE (Common Era) is: what defines the “common era”?
Before Christian Era, and Christian Era – of course.
They’re basically distinctions from BC and AD without a difference.
Pretty much my point. I find it amusing that they adopted the “common era” to get away from any religious basis (read: Christian), but all they did was change the name. They still use the same point in time to mark the change.
They’re just more woke BS.
CE and BCE came into play when year 0 was added for the convenience of programming computers. According to the US Naval Observatory and theology, Jesus was born 1 AD (in the year of….) and 1 AD was not his first birthday anniversary. 1 BC (before….) was the year prior to 1 AD. Most people don’t take the time to think it through but they love numerical superstition.
It’s a convention. It’s a lost cause.
Given that explanation, that would mean that one of either CE or BCE should differ from AD and BC by one year, and as I’m understanding it, that should be AD. So 2026 AD would be 2025 CE. But I don’t see that being done.
And either way, it’s still tied to the predicate event of Jesus’ birth.
! BC became year 0. AD did not change.
So I got the temporal direction wrong, but it’s the same issue. That means that the year of an historical event BC is different from the year of the event BCE, right?
So the Battle of Thermopylae was in 480 BC, that would mean it was in 479 BCE.
Correct.
However, it is still exactly the same number of years in the past.
“No. They have been occurring since the earth was first made. They have been measured in recent times.”
Yes. The quote should have read “…have been occurring for at least as long…”
Meanwhile, we are forced to move the time on our clocks forward or backward by an hour twice a year.
Yet another inane (insane) government edict.
Forced? Hardly.
Jeff is correct. All the US Daylight Savings Time (DST) laws say is that areas that elect to practice DST must switch between Daylight Savings and Standard times must switch on the same date. Hawaii and (most of) Arizona currently stay on Standard time. The rest of the country (including the Navajo Nation which stretches across parts of three states) opts to switch.
If you don’t like DST, perhaps you should, lobby your STATE legislators to drop it. But I suspect you’ll find that a majority of your friends and neighbors — especially those who like to engage in outdoor activities in the evening and those with children — prefer it.
Regardless of whether I change my clocks or not, the office does and I have to be in the office on time.
Since I drive east in the morning and west to go home, I get that sun glare twice as often.
Not really, just do what my uncle did. He was a Batchlor dairy farmer in Minnesota and hated DST. He simply ignored it and kept the clock on CST. He said that the only issue was that he had to remember was that the feed store closed an hour early in the summer.
The moon is moving away from the earth at approx. 38 mm (1.5″) per annum.
A change in the length in days is more likely to be due to the moon than CO2
I am actually quite impressed that a species in this Univers that does not has a hundred years of complete global temperature data
knows how fast the earth was spinning 3.6 mio years ago. Down to a Millisecond.
Those bizarr humans probably also travelled through space before they invented the wheel.
But maybe they are right to a certain degree :
The massive greening of the planet as result of more co2 may have slowed down the rotation by an irrelevant(but for climate angsters apocalyptic) bit as result of shifting some trillion tons a bit more away from the center.
On top of that we had Hungatonga blowing up 50 mio tons into the Atmosphere.
Everything combined may also slow down the rotation by a Nanosecond.
But if we add the variation in in distance to the sun / Millankovitch cycle effects and tectonic shifts throughout 3.6 mio years we may get into really problematic territory … but let’s not make the experts angry.
You missed an important letter there.
For what they steal and how they collude…
(but for climate Gangsters apocalyptic
But, the taller trees cause drag on the wind and drag slows it down. /s
I wonder how the rotation changed when the continents broke up or the Isthmus of Panama closed the Pacific from the Atlantic. Fun fact, sea level on the east coast of Panama is different than the west coast sea level. Pacific coast is 8 inches higher that Caribbean and has a tidal range more than 20x greater.
I assumed that was the reason that the study started at 3.6Mya, to focus on the present geography. They did refer to an event ~8000ya which could correspond to the flooding of Doggerland due to rapid ice melt.
Yes. the sun….Ol Sol…..is pulling the moon away and one day the moon will orbit the sun and not the earth.
Technically, the moon already orbits the sun.
The mass of Earth affects that orbit causing a bit of a spiral.
I was very surprised to learn this, but it is accurate.
The Earth’s rotation isn’t being slowed by Climate Change…fact check FALSE.
…
So, in the last 3.6MY the Earth’s length of day has increased by 61.2 – 64.8 seconds. An additional 1.33 milliseconds over 3.6MY is literally a rounding error.
“The Earth’s rotation isn’t being slowed by Climate Change…fact check FALSE.”
I think you mean fact check true. It isn’t being slowed by CC.
And Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner in an interview with Gregory Murphy for EIR – Made this point.
There’s another way of checking it (Sea Level Rise), because if the radius of the Earth increases, because sea level is rising, then immediately the Earth’s rate of rotation would slow down. That is a physical law, right? You have it in figure-skating: when they rotate very fast, the arms are close to the body; and then when they increase the radius, by putting out their arms, they stop by themselves. So you can look at the rotation and the same comes up: Yes, it might be 1.1 mm per year
Time of Day latest – There has never been a negative leap second in international timekeeping(Atomic Clock data), but 2020 raised the possibility that one might be needed. That year, Earth’s rotation sped up, breaking the previous record for shortest day, set in 2005, 28 times. The shortest day in 2020 occurred on July 19, when the planet completed its rotation 1.4602 milliseconds faster than the average of 86,400 seconds.
Now, according to Time and Date, Earth’s spin has simmered down. The first half of 2021 was still speedy, with the average length of a day clocking in at 0.39 milliseconds less than in 2020. But from July 1 to Sept. 30, the days lengthened to 0.05 milliseconds more, on average, than in 2020.
What that means, according to Time and Date, is that Earth is no longer accelerating its rotation. But it is still spinning at a quicker rate than average. Based on the current rate of rotation, a negative leap second might be required in about 10 years.
Figure skating is the wrong metaphor.
It has a broader girth, of course, but the water is drawn by the rotation and the water was already rotating as it was drawn to the equator. The water does not have a mechanical link equivalent to the shoulder socket.
The point is not that the accumulation of water affects the rotation, just that the skater metaphor is wrong.
This is serious! These changes in the LOD will eventually lead to a tipping point wherein we have runaway LOD change. With the day being catastrophically long, you would essentially have one side of the planet in a fryolator, and the other side in a deep freezer, making life all but impossible. We need to stop Catastrophic LOD (CLOD) change NOW!
The Mercury effect. Now we have a name for this crisis! 🙂
Since these leftist idiots can’t even tell time how would they know the difference anyway?
Humor – a difficult concept.
— Lt. Saavik
The International Earth Rotation Service had the coolest name of any international organization on the planet. It’s a shame they spoiled it.
“If Euronews had bothered to even do a modicum of research into this phenomenon, they’d know their story is based on misrepresentation of the cause of a change that can’t be sensed and promotes false alarm. Instead, they went the “click bait” route, choosing narrative over truth; badly misleading their readers in the process.”
Again, their goal isn’t truth, or even “clickbait”. It’s propaganda, supporting an agenda.
You presume Euronews reporters are intelligent enough to come up with such a scheme. I doubt it. Simple ignorance is a better bet for me.
Never assign to malfeasance that which can easily be assigned to stupidity.
“There is no plausible physiological pathway by which such a minuscule adjustment could disrupt ecosystems or human health. No living entity can detect or be affected by a thousandth of a second change in the length of a day.”
Says you !!
It stands to reason that the ‘Devil Gas’ CO2 is what’s really behind this,
We know that Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is significantly heavier and denser than the average composition of atmospheric air;
Preindustrial CO₂ ≈ 280 ppm → now ≈ 420 ppm: Δ ≈ 140 ppm of atmospheric molecules.
Atmospheric mass ≈ 5.15×10^18 kg, so a 140 ppm increase in CO₂-equivalent mass corresponds to ~5.15×10^18 kg × 140×10^-6 ≈ 7.2×10^14 kg added to the atmospheric composition, therefore all that extra mass will have a retarding effect.
The only possible solution to the existential threat of this loss of time is to lighten the atmospheric load …
Methane (CH4) is lighter than air.
Because methane’s molecular weight is much lower, it is less dense than air at the same temperature and pressure and therefore tends to rise when released.
So if we breed more ruminants & we all eat more beans & cauliflower cheese, the resultant change in atmospheric density should save us from this calamitous crisis.
Our slogan should be … ‘Fart to Save Time’ … or …
‘Flatulence for a Flat Earth’ as a spinning disk is more stable than a spinning globe. (:-))
And next week they’ll laud some new green tidal energy harvesting scheme, which actually would affect time.
The water stored behind the Three Gorges Dam in China has supposedly made the day infinitesimally longer. I’m confident that humanity can adapt.
What about the mass of gadzillions of 200 foot tall WTGs. Figure Skaters know the effect.
The paper shows that the effect of increased water storage is small compared with ice melt (Fig 7).
The Earth’s centrifugal force is affected if the Earth’s rotation speed changes.
The Earth’s centrifugal force is created by the Earth’s rotation speed which creates a sea level bulge at the equator of 21000 meters higher than at the poles.
Can the change in the Earth’s rotation speed change the Earth’s centrifugal force which changes the sea level?
How is this sea level change calculated?
“1.33 milliseconds is roughly 0.000015 percent of a day”.
“Bulge 21000 meters”.
Is it possible to calculate this by taking 21000 meters * 0.000015 = 0.315 meters?
Can the decrease in rotation speed cause a sea level decrease of 0.315 meters at the equator?
Does the Earth’s rotation speed increase if the amount of ice at the poles increases?
Does the Earth’s rotation speed decrease if the amount of ice at the poles decreases?
Can the Earth’s varying rotation speed explain some of the historical sea level changes?
I bet you are exhausted from creating all those “thoughts.” 🙂
It’s exciting to explore the unknown.
It’s boring to kick a ball.
It’s boring to sunbathe on a sandy beach.
It’s boring to travel around in a boat.
I thought you might have recognized the smile indicating humor.
Sitting on a beach doing nothing? Boring, I agree.
Boating? Sometimes boring sometimes exhilarating. Nothing like sailing with a stiff wind.
Likewise kicking a ball. Alone? Boring.
Yes. Exploring the unknown. All the time. Figuring out the puzzles of the unknown. Yes.
It takes the human brain an estimated 30 milliseconds to process a thought (respond to stimuli). I don’t think that even a New York Minute will be impacted by this reported change.
What do you think if burning oil reduces the weight of the earth?
When the oil turns into gas, does the liquid weight of the oil disappear?
Or does the weight of the oil remain in the atmosphere?
I’ve always wondered about this and haven’t figured it out.
No matter how much cardio Terra does, she just can’t seem to lose weight…
A tiny bit less mass, converted to heat.
It is not mass “converted to heat.”
Mass conversion to energy is a nuclear process.
Burning oil, an oxidation process, releases thermal energy when the chemical bonds are broken.
That heat escaping Earth does infinitesimally reduce the Earth’s mass, the subject of his question.
“When the oil turns into gas, does the liquid weight of the oil disappear?”
The ‘oil turns into’ gas and liquid (water).
“measurably altering Earth’s rotation, lengthening the day by about 1.33 milliseconds over a century”
OMG, that’s terrifying! 🙂
Quick. Get Musk to start building Ark Ships.
“…melting ice and mass redistribution are influencing Earth’s rotation.”
As anyone who watched the performance of the Olympic ice dancers was reminded, moving the body mass (arms and legs) closer to the axis of rotation speeds up the rotation. Last time I checked, melting ice (water) flows downhill, i.e., closer to the axis of rotation, so how can it cause the rotation of the Earth to slow down?
From mountain glaciers, possible. From polar ice caps, nah.
Although it does raise an interesting concept that requires further thought.
Then again, when the snow falls on the mountains restocking the ice, the effect could/should be reversed.
The surface of the earth warms during the day and cools at night. If the days are longer then the nights are longer as well. Problem solved!
Ah, but when the earth burns to a crisp in the sunlight, there will be no one left to enjoy the stars at night. 😉
The number of satellites also have a gravitational effect, albeit quite small, on the planet which causes miniscule changes in rotation.
China’s massive hydro project made a measurable change on the rotation in the scale of 10 microseconds. Likewise the earthquake in Japan (ref. tsunami and nuclear power plant) altered the rotation.
The planet is in an eccentric elliptical orbit around the barycenter. The gravitational drag of the sun affects day to day rotation.
The moon, and tides, affect the day to day rotation.
The list goes on, including plate tectonics and volcanism.
What was once said “the devil’s in the details” needs to be changed to “the devil’s in ignoring the details.”