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Most of the record-breaking hot years on Earth that occurred from 2000 to 2014, were caused by human activity, a new study suggests.
Of all the years since the beginning of the 19th century, last year was the hottest. Scientists blame rising temperatures on greenhouse gasses from burning fossil fuels, droughts, stoking heat waves, and so on.
In a new study – published Monday (Jan. 25) in the journal Scientific Reports – a team of experts found that the record-breaking high temperatures are unlikely to have occurred in the absence of man-made global warming.
Researches also used computer simulations and noted that the odds that thirteen of the fifteen warmest years from 2000 to 2014 were random and with no human influence, were between one in 770 and one in 10,000.
Michael Mann, lead author of the study and a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, said that the computer simulations found that in 2015 the odds had become even greater to between one in 1,250 and one in 13,000. According to Mann, climate change is caused by humans, is one hundred percent real, and no longer subtle.
Stefan Rahmstorf, a co-author of the study and a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK), said that natural climate variations – such as volcanic eruptions of shifts in the Sun’s output – cannot explain the record-breaking temperatures, but human activity can.
Almost 190 nations agreed last month at a summit in Paris that the most important thing now is to shift from fossil fuels toward other cleaner energies, like solar and wind power. That could help prevent further warming of the planet.
The United Nations’ (UN) World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed data from the United Kingdom and the United States, which showed that 2015 has so far been the hottest year on record. The WMO also stated that the El Niño event – which generates a band of warm ocean water in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific – led to even more heat.
Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General at the World Meteorological Organization and former Director-General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, said that over the next months the power of El Niño will start fading. However, man-induced climate change and its impacts will stay with us for many decades to come, Mr. Taalas added.
Image Source: cdn. pictures. reuters
