World heat records broken for third year in a row
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LAST year was Earth’s warmest on record, according to data compiled by the United Nations, confirming American findings that heat records were broken for a third year in 2016.
The study by the World Meteorological Organization found that global average temperatures were about 1.1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial period, and about 0.07 degrees Celsius above the record set in 2015.
“2016 was an extreme year for the global climate and stands out as the hottest year on record,” said Petteri Taalas, the agency’s secretary general. “Long-term indicators of human-caused climate change reached new heights in 2016,” he said.
“We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic,” said Taalas, adding that the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the global average.
He also said the analysis found that atmospheric concentrations of both carbon dioxide and methane had reached record levels.
The agency based its findings on data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre, and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.
Last year, the Earth sweltered under the hottest temperatures in modern times for the third year in a row, US scientists said yesterday, raising new concerns about the quickening pace of climate change.
Temperatures hit new national highs in parts of India, Kuwait and Iran, while sea ice melted faster than ever in the fragile Arctic, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Taking a global average of the land and sea surface temperatures for the entire year, NOAA found the data for “2016 was the highest since record keeping began in 1880,” it said.
A separate analysis by the NASA also found that 2016 was the hottest on record.
Each of the first eight months of the year “had record high temperatures for their respective months,” NOAA said.
The main reason for the rise is the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas, which send carbon dioxide, methane and other pollutants known as greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warm the planet.
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