It’s official: 2016 was the hottest year ever documented
President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese, but scientists beg to differ. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported this week that 2016 was the hottest year ever documented, surpassing 2015, which previously held the record for highest average global temperature.
According to NASA’s figures, which include large portions of the Arctic, 2016 was .22 degrees (.12 degrees Celsius) warmer than 2015. NOAA calculated that last year’s average global temperature was 58.69 degrees, which is .07 degrees (.04 Celsius) higher than the 2015 average.
The increase is largely due to man-made global warming, which was enhanced by a strong weather pattern commonly known as El Niño.
“A single warm year is something of a curiosity, NOAA's chief of global climate monitoring, Derek Arndt told The New York Times. “It’s really the trend, and the fact that we’re punching at the ceiling every year now, that is the real indicator that we’re undergoing big changes.
Temperatures are heading toward levels that many experts believe will pose a threat to both the natural world and to human civilization.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 18, 2017
2016 is the third consecutive year that scientists have reported record-breaking heat — and this pattern has dangerous implications for our planet and mankind.
