Today, scientists at the NOAA and NASA announced that 2014 was the warmest year since (at least) 1880, the year we started keeping records. Will this get climate change deniers to warm up to the necessity of alternative energy sources? Not a chance!
[Check out more detail on Huffington Post.]
The New York Times wrote:
“‘Obviously, a single year, even if it is a record, cannot tell us much about climate trends,’aid Stefan Rahmstorf, head of earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. ‘However, the fact that the warmest years on record are 2014, 2010 and 2005 clearly indicates that global warming has not ‘stopped in 1998,’ as some like to falsely claim.’
Such claims are unlikely to go away, though. John R. Christy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville who is known for his skepticism about the seriousness of global warming, pointed out in an interview that 2014 had surpassed the other record-warm years by only a few hundredths of a degree, well within the error margin of global temperature measurements.
‘Since the end of the 20th century, the temperature hasn’t done much,’ Dr. Christy said. ‘It’s on this kind of warmish plateau.’
NASA and the other American agency that maintains long-term temperature records, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued separate data compilations on Friday that confirmed the 2014 record. A Japanese agency had released preliminary information in early January showing 2014 as the warmest year.”
NASA states, “While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year.
‘NOAA provides decision makers with timely and trusted science-based information about our changing world,’ said Richard Spinrad, NOAA chief scientist. ‘As we monitor changes in our climate, demand for the environmental intelligence NOAA provides is only growing. It’s critical that we continue to work with our partners, like NASA, to observe these changes and to provide the information communities need to build resiliency.’”
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