NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) found that the average global temperature is now more than 1 degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above what it was in the late 1800s. (As a reminder, the critical threshold of warming is 1.5 degrees Celsius). Earth’s global surface temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880, and the past five years have been the warmest of the last 140 years.
“We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015 and we are unlikely to go back. This shows that what’s happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon: we know that the long-term trends are being driven by the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”Gavin Schmidt, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)"
NASA, NASA and NOAA Analyses Reveal 2019 Second Warmest Year on Record (NASA, 15 January 2020)
