Again!!! 2016 was the hottest year on record

Last year was officially the Earth's
warmest since record-keeping began in the
1880s, the World Meteorological Organization
announced Wednesday morning.
That means 2016 set a global heat record for the
third year in a row according to NOAA and NASA,
who held a joint press conference on Wednesday
to discuss the record.
Not only was this the third consecutive year to
rank hotter than all previous years, it also means
16 of the 17 hottest years on record have
occurred since 2000, according to NOAA. To put
this in perspective, the last time we had a record
cold year was 1911.
Temperatures over the Earth's continents and
oceans in 2016 were 1.1 degree Celsius (1.98
degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial
average, according to the WMO. That means we
are already a majority of the way to the 1.5-
degree warming goal set at the Paris Climate
Agreement in 2015 .
Climate scientists say greenhouse gas pollution,
which humans are creating primarily by burning
fossil fuels and chopping down rainforests, likely
contributed to the 2016 record.
And the pollution certainly is behind the long-
term trend toward warming, scientists say.
"(T)he spate of record-warm years that we have
seen in the 21st century can only be explained by
human-caused climate change," said Michael
Mann, director of the Earth Science Center at
Pennsylvania State University.
"The effect of human activity on our climate is no
longer subtle. It's plain as day, as are the impacts
-- in the form of record floods, droughts,
superstorms and wildfires - that it is having on
us and our planet."