This 15-Second Video Will Convince You That Global Warming Is Real
Obama was right. Climate change is a fact.
If you need more convincing, check out the 15-second video below.
Just released by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the video shows how global temperatures have changed from 1950 to 2013. It compiles weather data from over 1,000 meteorological stations all over the world.
The yellow color is average temperature while the oranges and reds are one and two degree Celsius higher than average temperatures. The change is pretty striking:
It's normal to see temperature fluctuations from year to year, but the data shows a definite long-term trend of rising temperatures.
According to NASA, nine of the 10 warmest years from the past six decades have occurred since 2000. The analysis also shows that the Earth's average temperature has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has climbed to over 400 parts per million from just 285 parts per million in 1880.
Researchers working on the project see this as more evidence that global temperatures are rising because of increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, largely from man-made emissions.
"Long-term trends in surface temperatures are unusual and 2013 adds to the evidence for ongoing climate change," climatologist Gavin Schmidt from the Goddard Institute for Space Science said in a press release. "While one year or one season can be affected by random weather events, this analysis shows the necessity for continued, long-term monitoring."