THE hottest year ever recorded, unusually warm ocean temperatures, record sea ice lows in the Arctic and Antarctic, droughts and ever-rising carbon dioxide levels: the World Meteorological Organization鈥檚 statement on the global climate in 2016 paints an alarming picture.
The planet continues to warm rapidly, by around 0.1 to 0.2掳C per decade. Last year saw yet another record: the average global surface temperature was 1.1掳C above pre-industrial levels, slightly above the previous record set in 2015.
The extreme weather has continued into 2017, with periods of unusual heat in the Arctic and in Australia. 鈥淗uman-driven climate change is now an empirically verifiable fact,鈥� says Phil Williamson at the University of East Anglia, UK. 鈥淭hose who dispute that link are not sceptics, but deniers.鈥�
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This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲ild weather鈥�