Everyday seems a bit hotter than the day before with seemingly no end in sight. Up ’till now, it has just been a bunch of complaining with no evidence to back up the claims that today [has been] the “hottest day ever”. Or “this summer has been the hottest one ever” or that the year had been the hottest year ever. That’s right, scientists have now shown conclusively that 2014 was actually the hottest year ever recorded.
Climate change is one of, if the not the single most severe threat that the world faces today. The fact that last year was the hottest year recorded shows the reality of global warming and how much our planet is actually heating up. If nothing is done in light of these telling statistics, we could be headed down a very dark path with more years as hot or hotter than 2014. What year will be the next hottest year ever?
Trends in climate change leading to the hottest year ever
It’s a combination of a large number of factors that has spurned climate change significant enough for 2014 to be the hottest year ever recorded. The results of the data collected reveal the shocking nature of the irreversible damage that we’ve caused to the Earth. According to Thomas R. Karl, L.D.H, Director at NOAA, “This report represents data from around the globe, from hundreds of scientists and gives us a picture of what happened in 2014. The variety of indicators shows us how our climate is changing, not just in temperature but from the depths of the oceans to the outer atmosphere.”
The large amount of data confirming that the earth is drastically heating to unprecedented temperatures has left scientists like Karl scrambling to find solutions to a problem which may already be too late to fix…
The year that broke the thermometers
2014 was a year that broke more than one record related to the Earth’s changing composition: Not only were temperatures higher on the surface of the planet than they have ever been in 135 years that we have been recording the temperatures on our planet; but CO2 concentrations were higher than ever recorded, the sea was recorded as being the hottest that the ocean has ever been, the ice in the arctic continued to melt at a faster pace, and the sea levels have risen more than ever before.
What lessons can we take from the hottest year on record
Those who have suffered heatstroke perhaps understand best the effects that rising temperatures can have on individuals. Still, all who examine the changes that the planet has undergone leading up to 2014 can plainly see that something has gone wrong. The balance is off and that’s putting it lightly. If nothing is done, these temperatures will continue to rise, and who knows if 2015 could be even hotter than anyone thought possible.
