It's Official: 2015 Was the Warmest Year on Record

NASA’s press release about the cause of this heat was clear: while 2015 certainly received a boost in its heat because 2015 was an El Niño year (and El Niño years tend to be hotter than average), the main factor was manmade global warming. “The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degree Celsius) since the late-19th century, a change largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere,” the press release said.

They go on to point out that the global average temperature is just that — an average — and that an overall rise in heat does not mean that every place on earth would necessarily be hotter than usual.

This announcement comes just a month after the Paris climate talks resulted in the world’s first major international treaty on climate emissions. That treaty has yet to go into effect, and may still be derailed if climate deniers are able to prevent its ratification in enough countries.