January 20, 2016•Update: January 22, 2016
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
U.S. government scientists announced Wednesday that 2015 was earth’s warmest year in recorded history.
The announcement by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comes one month after global leaders met in France to reach an agreement on climate change.
The previous hottest year was 2014, and last year toppled that record by 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit). Fifteen of the top 16 hottest years has occurred since 2000.
Scientists peg the warming surface temperatures on human-made carbon emissions causing climate change as well as natural phenomenon such as the El Niño weather system which warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the equator.
“2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño,” NASA researcher Gavin Schmidt said in a statement.
“Last year’s temperatures had an assist from El Niño, but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing.”
Humanity’s mark on the changing climate is evidenced by the fact that earth’s average surface temperature has increased roughly 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s, when global temperatures were first estimated and recorded.
Most of the warming trend has happened in the past 35 years, and the 16 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998.
“Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and NASA’s vital work on this important issue affects every person on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Today’s announcement not only underscores how critical NASA’s Earth observation program is, it is a key data point that should make policy makers stand up and take notice -- now is the time to act on climate.”
In December, world leaders met in Paris to discuss climate change at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and signed an agreement meant to prevent the globe’s average temperatures from rising another 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
