Climate Change Breaking Records
Last updated 8/14/2016 at 8:48am
A study based on the work of more than 450 scientists worldwide confirmed on Tue. Aug 2, that 2015 was the warmest year on record for land and sea. The State of the Climate report, published by the American Meteorological Society, followed a report by two US government agencies which found 2015's global average temperature was the hottest ever by the widest margin on record.
The record heat in 2015, driven by a combination of long-term global warming and one of the strongest El Nino climate patterns in at least half a century, will likely add fuel to the ongoing debate over global warming policies.
Last year was the first time that Earth was 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than pre-industrial times, states the report.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) release their own monthly report. In their recent report, the agency stated that "The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for June 2016 was the highest for the month of June in the NOAA global temperature data set record, which dates back to 1880,"
It also states that the global temperature for the first six months of 2016 were the hottest on record. "This marks the 14th consecutive month the monthly global temperature record has been broken, the longest such streak in the 137-year record."
El Nino is likely to have an even greater impact on global surface temperatures in 2016, as global sea levels rose about 2¾ inches above the 1993 average.
Greenhouse gas concentrations were also the highest on record, exceeding 400 parts per million for the first time at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, the report said.
