2018 Was Fourth-Hottest Year in Modern Records, U.S. Government Scientists Say
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration release annual temperature data
WASHINGTON—The past five years have been the hottest in modern records, federal scientists said, the latest in a string of warnings over the impact of climate change on the planet.
In a new annual federal climate report released Wednesday, researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which independently track annual climate trends for the federal government, said 2018 was the fourth-warmest year since 1880. The record was set in 2016, followed by 2017 and 2015, with historic changes largely from greenhouse-gas emissions from human activities, the agencies said.
The report comes during a year of extreme storms, floods and fires across the country. NASA scientists linked the extreme weather to rising temperatures, saying the warming extended fire seasons and fueled bigger storms.
Unchecked, climate change could cause U.S. economic losses totaling hundreds of billions of dollars a year by the end of the century through water shortages, floods and fires, the U.S. National Climate Assessment said in November.
Also, a United Nations report earlier in the year said humans must take unprecedented global efforts within a decade to avoid the worst effects.
“The impacts of long-term global warming are already being felt—in coastal flooding, heat waves, intense precipitation and ecosystem change,” Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said in a news release.
Washington remains deeply divided over how to address climate change. The Trump administration, which withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, is advancing plans to overturn Obama-era environment rules on coal-burning plants, enraging environment groups who blame burning fossil fuels for raising temperatures. Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives, have pledged to pursue policies to address climate change in any legislation to improve the nation’s infrastructure.