2015 was by far the hottest year in all of recorded history, scientists announced on Wednesday; it has previously been reported that it was the second-hottest year in the continental United States. Meteorologists suspected a global temperature record was possible months ago as part of one of the largest El Niños of the century, although scientists also pinned blame on climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases.
"The whole system is warming up, relentlessly," Gerald A. Meehl, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told The New York Times. Back-to-back records in both 2014 and 2015 indicate the world is not just warming, but doing so rapidly; climate scientist Michael E. Mann estimates that if the global climate were not warming, the odds of breaking records in consecutive years is one in every 1,500 pairs of years.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Democrats try to stop Trump's USAID closureSpeed Read Trump and Elon Musk are attempting to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, a move congressional Democrats say is illegal
-
Today's political cartoons - February 4, 2025Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - friends and enemies, DEI in DC, and more
-
Things Donald Trump has said about womenIn Depth The president has a long history of controversial remarks about the opposite sex
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
