The last time Earth was this warm was 125,000 years ago
The planet sizzled to its thirdstraight record- warm year in 2016, and human activity is to blame, federal scientists announced Wednesday.
The last time the world was definitely warmer than today? About 125,000 years ago, based on data from tree rings, ice cores, sediments and other measures of Earth’s history, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt says.
The average temperature across land and ocean surfaces in 2016 was 58.69 degrees, 1.69 degrees above average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA) said. It was largest margin by which an annual global temperature record has ever been broken, the agency said.
Although less than 2 degrees above average may sound small, it’s large in climate science, in which records are broken by tenths or even hundredths of degrees.
A separate analysis from NASA concurred with NOAA’s findings. Most of the warming has happened in the past 35 years, and 16 of the 17 warmest years have occurred since 2001, NASA said.
Temperature records were set in 2016 on nearly every continent. No land areas were cooler than average. For eight straight months ( January through August), each month recorded its warmest temperatures since record keeping began 15 years after the Civil War ended.
The warmth last year contributed to deadly heat waves in Asia and the Middle East, a “mega”- wildfire in Canada, record- low sea ice in the Arctic, and devastating coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef near Australia. The warmth was 80% to 90% the result of the longterm climate trend and 10% the result of the natural El Niño climate pattern, Schmidt says.
The warming trend over the past few decades can be linked to the burning of oil, gas and coal that releases “greenhouse” gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, into the atmosphere.
“No world leader can afford to ignore these results, which show that people all over the globe are being exposed to increasing impacts of climate change,” said Bob Ward of the London School of Economics and Political Science. “Any politician who denies this evidence from world- class climate scientists in the United States will be willfully turning a blind eye to rising risks that threaten the lives and livelihoods of their citizens.”
Since the start of the 21st century, NOAA said, the annual global temperature record has been broken five times — 2005, 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
“The science is clear and headed in one direction. ... Nature is sending a distress call.” Lou Leonard, World Wildlife Fund