Last year was Earth's hottest on record, two U.S. government agencies said Friday — new evidence that people are disrupting the climate by burning fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases.
The White House said the studies, by the space agency NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), showed climate change is happening now and that action is needed to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The 10 warmest years since records began in the 19th century have all been since 1997, the data showed. Last year was the warmest, ahead of 2010, undermining claims by some deniers that global warming has stopped in recent years.