2015 warmest year on record
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According to the UN’s Geneva-based weather agency, records indicate that the period between 2011 and 2015 will be the warmest on record.
More worrying still is that, due to a combination of a strong El Nino and anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming, 2015 looks set to mark the “symbolic and significant milestone of 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era.”
Negotiators at the upcoming climate summit in Paris are attempting to keep humanity on track to limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, though this is by no means the “safe limit” some have portrayed it to be, and will still lead to severe climate change impacts around the world.
The UN agency said that the five year period beginning in 2011 has already been marked by serious extreme weather events that can be attributed to climate change, and sea levels in the first half of this year were at their highest since satellite observations began in 1993. ■