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Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since records began, it shattered the previous record

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD

Global temperatures in 2015 were by far the hottest in modern times, according to new data from American science agencies.

Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since records began in 1880, it shattered the previous record held in 2014 by the widest margin ever observed, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. “During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 0.90 Celsius above the 20th century average,” the NOAA report said.

“This was the highest among all years in the 1880 to 2015 record [and also] the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.”

The US space agency NASA, which monitors global climate using a fleet of satellites and weather stations, confirmed that last year broke records for heat in contemporary times. NASA said that the temperature changes are largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

“Climate change is the challenge of our generation,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said. “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.”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.abc.net.au

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