Separate analyses conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirm that 2014 will go down as the warmest year on modern record. Earlier in January, the Japan Meteorological Association also determined that 2014 was the warmest year globally, since they begin taking readings in 1891.
In a joint press release, on January 16, 2015, NOAA and NASA scientists reported that 2014 was the warmest year on earth for surface and ocean temperatures, since at least 1880. 2014 also marks the 38th consecutive year where global temperatures exceeded the 20th-century average. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998.
While global readings were unusually warm in 2014, the Central and Eastern United States had cooler than normal weather. This of course, helped fuel skepticism in the American Midwest, where denialists don’t appear to grasp the distinction between local winter weather and global climate change. The Western United States by contrast had well above normal temperatures. Alaska, California, Arizona, and Nevada had their warmest years on record. Warmer temperatures might not cause immediate alarm in Fairbanks, but folks living in Phoenix or Yuma could probably do without hotter readings in the summer months.
The record heat in 2014 should be of additional concern, because unlike previous record-setting years in 1998, 2005, and 2010, last year was not an El Nino year. According to Gavin Schmidt, Director of NASA’s Goodard Institute for Space Studies, “this is the first year since 1997 that the record warmest year was not an El Nino year at the beginning of the year, because the last three have been.”
Climate change denialists will continue to ignore the overwhelming evidence that the planet is getting warmer. They will argue that all of the “climate change hype” is politically motivated, the data be damned. However, it is the Republican politicians, the fossil fuel interests, and conservative ideologues, who resist the truth, not the scientists at NASA or NOAA. There is no conspiracy of thermometers giving false readings across the globe to dupe us into believing the earth is getting warmer.
The thermometers, not the denialists, are correct. The planet is getting warmer, whether we believe it is or not. Recognizing the reality of human-caused global warming, and taking steps to address it, may be one of the most important challenges for humans to face in the 21st century. NOAA and NASA have given us the necessary data to inspire action. We can choose to bury our heads in the sand and do nothing, or we can take their report and find ways to reduce our carbon footprint. The latter path makes more sense.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
They’re talking about our Climate Crisis on The Guardian. Please check it out:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/16/2014-hottest-year-on-record-scientists-noaa-nasa#comment-46240109
We, the whole world must put our heads together and demand changes. There’s power in numbers!
Jesus could come down and tell the GOP climate change is real and you know what they’d do?
Crucify him all over again.
These people don’t believe in science – or they are willfully ignoring it for their own purposes.
Either way, until they accept established science, we’re screwed.
Hello, call for Inofe, hello, is anybody there, over.
The so-called records that were just set are meaningless as the amount by which the records are being set are less than the uncertainties of the measurements and calculations.
Oh, gotta’ run and adjust my thermostat – the temperature in my room changed by two one hundredths of a degree C – that is what we are talking about folks with these “records.” Talk about hypochondriac.
Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (Mech.)
Executive Director,
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
http://www.climatescienceinternational.org
You want to try diagramming that first sentence?
Humans…making air, they will be fun to watch! Watch and share….
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jBqMJzv4Cs8
Then the GOP in Congress will slash both the NOAA and the NASA budgets. Problem solved! But, how can Rubio not believe in climate change when he’s from one of the most vulnerable states?
You do know that Ted Cruz is head of the committee that NASA and NOAA reports to
Heh! Awesome example of the “Dazzle the Rubes With Bullshit” approach.
Plus, a walkin’ talkin’ specimen displaying The Backfire Effect
Keep on doublin’ down, Tom, old dude.
Just perfect
If I could upload pictures, I would send you one of flowering innocence. That’s right. Houstonia procumbens, a ground-hugging white relative of the northern bluet, used to flower in late February or early March here in Volusia County,Florida. It’s out now. My peach trees and Chickasaw plum are already through blooming. All these plants require some winter dormancy. With creeping Zone Ten on its way, we will not only lose half our state; we will lose our Innocence.
Rubio doesn’t believe it because his Miami neighborhood isn’t inundated…YET. There is already high tide ocean flooding in Miami and Miami Beach streets. Not from rains. From the Ocean, which is rising, which is due to Ice Caps, glaciers, and Arctic snowmelts. I read the NOAA report a few days ago. It is understandable, to the point, and scary. We also are due, soon, to have some massive extinctions of not only arctic animals, but also sea life, seafood, which is due to increasing acidity in the oceans. I believe the scientists. I do NOT believe the pooh-poohing Republicans who are not only scientifically uneducated, but also UNABLE to be educated. It is up to us to make it understood the danger we are in, to say nothing about our children’s and their children’s lives as well being in danger.
As a commentor above pointed out, the temp has changed by so little, it is within the margin of error. I went and looked at the official press release on the NASA site. Buried in the middle is the money quote –
“Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius)”.
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record/
My response to that is – so what?
Perhaps you should also research what that means instead of saying so what.
Try and envision the entire earth and how much some places have to heat up to make that average.
BTW, also look at the trend. Its not going down, its going up. the charts are not in control
NASA now admits they are only “38% sure” that 2014 was the hottest on record.
— snip —
The claim made headlines around the world, but yesterday it emerged that GISS’s analysis – based on readings from more than 3,000 measuring stations worldwide – is subject to a margin of error. Nasa admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all.
Yet the Nasa press release failed to mention this, as well as the fact that the alleged ‘record’ amounted to an increase over 2010, the previous ‘warmest year’, of just two-hundredths of a degree – or 0.02C. The margin of error is said by scientists to be approximately 0.1C – several times as much.
As a result, GISS’s director Gavin Schmidt has now admitted Nasa thinks the likelihood that 2014 was the warmest year since 1880 is just 38 per cent.
—snip—
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2915061/Nasa-climate-scientists-said-2014-warmest-year-record-38-sure-right.html#ixzz3PBpOUD5X
2014 was statistically equivalent to 2005 & 2010, which implies that global temps have remained static for the past 10 years at least. RSS & UAH satellite data sets show 2014 as the 7th and 3rd warmest years since 1979. The satellite data shows global temps haven’t increased in 18 years.