Gavin Schmidt on 2015's Record Global Temperature

  • Released Wednesday, January 20, 2016
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Gavin Schmidt, Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, discusses the results of their analyses of 2015 global temperature data. Spoiler alert: it was warm.

Earth's 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much. This record high temperature continues the long-term trend of increasing temperature, and brings us halfway to the 2°C ceiling agreed to at the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris.

In these videos, NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt speaks directly about the data and what it means.

Credits

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, January 20, 2016.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:48 PM EDT.