2014, the Hottest Year on Earth

According to calculations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, last year, 2014, was the hottest year in the past 135 years. The Japan Meteorological Agency and an independent group from the University of California, Berkeley also reported 2014 as the hottest recorded year. On January 16, the Associated Press reported that NOAA stated the average temperature for 2014 was about 14.5 degrees Celsius, which is 1.24 degrees higher than the average temperature of the Earth in the 20th century. However, NASA, which uses slightly different methods to determine temperature, set the average temperature at 14.67 degrees Celsius, which is 1.22 degrees higher than the average calculated for the years 1951 to 1980. The Earth's temperature in 2014 broke the previous records set in 2010 and 2005. According to NOAA reports, the last record cold temperature for the Earth dates back to 1911. December 2014 was reported as the warmest December in recorded history and the coldest December was in the winter of 1916. "Jennifer Francis," a climatologist at Rutgers University, said, "The Earth is now warmer than it has been in the last 100 years and likely warmer than it has been in the last 5000 years. There is no longer any doubt about the negative impact of human activities on the warming of the Earth." "Andrew Dessler," a climatologist at Texas A&M University, and other experts say the new statistics completely refute unscientific claims that the warming trend of the Earth has stopped. The unprecedented warming of ocean temperatures has not only changed previous records but has shattered them. Unprecedented warmth has been recorded in eastern Russia, western United States, low-lying areas of South America, most of Europe, North Africa, and parts of Australia. One of the few cooler areas was the central and eastern United States. Meteorologists say one of the most important points about the unprecedented warmth in 2014 is that there was no report of climate fluctuations known as "El Niño" that year. In El Niño climate changes, warming in the central Pacific Ocean leads to long, unusual warm periods worldwide, causing temperatures to rise exponentially. NOAA states that all years of the 21st century are among the 20 hottest years recorded in history. "Michael Mann," a professor at Pennsylvania State University, said, "We are witnessing how human activities are changing the climate before our eyes." He added, "The increase in greenhouse gases from fossil fuel consumption has created this very unlikely and exceptional situation. An unprecedented year in a warm decade, in a period that includes several warm decades that seems to be unparalleled in at least the last century."