It's heating up... fast

[Dr Frook]

Man... I'm feeling nervous about wot crap the world is going to face in the next 30 or so years. And the thing that keeps bugging me most is they keep on talking about fossil fuels being the problem. These people need to start talking about cows. *sigh*

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."

Rising temperatures observed worldwide

Last year marked the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century.

Moreover, the latest finding adds to a steady rise in heat across land and sea surfaces that have seen records repeatedly broken over the years.

"Since 1997, which at the time was the warmest year on record, 16 of the subsequent 18 years have been warmer than that year," the NOAA report said.

Megacities swamped by sea rise

Australia's coastal capitals would slip under the waves along with megacities across the world even if global warming can be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, scientists say.


Last year alone, 10 months had record high temperatures for their respective months.

The heat was felt worldwide, with unprecedented warmth covering much of Central America and the northern half of South America.

Regions of eastern and southern Africa experienced more blistering heat than ever, as did large parts of the north-eastern and equatorial Pacific boosted by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Hot temperatures were observed in parts of northern, southern and eastern Europe as well as western Asia and a large section of east-central Siberia.

A separate group, Berkeley Earth — a US non-profit organisation that says it was founded by people who saw some merit in the claims of climate change sceptics — announced similar findings last week.

"For the first time in recorded history, the Earth's temperature is clearly more than 1.0 Celsius above the 1850-1900 average," it said.

NOAA's announcement comes against a backdrop of the recently completed Paris climate talks, at which the goal of capping global warming at 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels was enshrined.

[Rainshard]

Been in three countries for summer this year. England, Turkey, South Africa.

All three reported major heatwaves.

[Dr Frook]

a few heatwaves here and there are not a big problem. The problem is when there is a heatwave year after year. By that time it will be almost too late to undo the damage the the impending doom of the human race.

[Boxorino]

reminder that it's el nino rn so the weather is bound to be hotter or colder than normal around the world C:

[Dr Frook]

reminder that it's el nino rn so the weather is bound to be hotter or colder than normal around the world C:

another reminder, we are in the middle of a mini ice age that has been countered by the extra warming. Without it we would already be cooked.

[Flobalob]

I WANT SNOW

[BluesDotEXE]

I say we exterminate those who make bullshit claims that they will fix the world, when in reality they'll only make it worse. This year might only make the situation beyond worse.

[The Divine Potato]

I WANT SNOW

I do to, but seeing what lies underneath the ice of Antartica would be very interesting, flood most of the world, but not us Scots on our hills and mountains.

[Shadow00]

much as i care, one more reason to fund colonies on other planets.
also, nice words but all it may do to earth is actually make the next ice age come shorter.
after all we did stop one ice age from happening
unless we find a way to manage that, which i do believe is possible