Science Confirms 2014 Was Hottest Yet Recorded, On Land And Sea

Discussions and viewpoints have been taken of hundreds of scientists and after that they were able to have a picture of what had happened in 2014.

A total of 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world contributed to the report, which is based on data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, water, ice and in space.

The news came on the same day as a new joint report was released by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Lancet Commission, revealing that climate change is jeopardizing the future health of the human population.

Scientists said the warming of the oceans is now unstoppable, even if greenhouse gas emissions were frozen at today’s levels. The indicators often reflect many thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets.

The report finds that major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, continued to rise during 2014, once again reaching historic high values.

Four different measuring systems concluded that 2014 was the hottest year on record on Earth’s surface. This compares with a global average of 354.0 in 1990 when this report was first published just 25 years ago. “The warmth was distributed widely around the globe’s land areas”. Europe and Mexico experienced their warmest years on record, Africa had above-average temperatures across most of the continent and Australia had its third-warmest year. Eastern North America, including the eastern USA, was relatively cool for the majority of 2014, with some sharp cold air outbreaks early in the year, especially here in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean have also perturbed by oscillations stemming from El Nino, causing a disruption in ocean currents. This pattern played a major role in several regional climate outcomes. Residents of Java’s coastal villages have been hit hard by rising sea levels in recent years. Atmospheric Carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 1.9 parts per million in 2014, reaching a global average of 397.2 ppm for the year.

The researchers said warming oceans could lead to more severe storms and extreme weather events, as well as quicker ice melt toward the Earth’s poles and a resulting rise in the global sea level.

Numerous trends seen in the past two decades continued in 2014.

Last year was the fourth warmest year on record for the Arctic since the time record-keeping has started in the early 20th century.

The Arctic and the Antarctic alike have registered record warm temperatures, with the Antarctic also registering record low temperatures as well.

Permafrost in Alaska measuring sites thawed as temperatures at 65 feet (20 meters) underground set record highs for the second year in a row.