LIMA, Peru — With temperature data showing 2014 tied for the hottest year on record, the United Nations weather agency rejected claims Wednesday that global warming has paused.
The World Meteorological Organization said the global average temperature in January-October was 1.03 Fahrenheit above average, the same as in record hot year 2010.
The ocean temperature set a record in the nine-month period, while land temperatures were the fourth- or fifth-highest since record-keeping began in the 19th century, the WMO said in a report released at U.N. climate talks in Lima and at its Geneva headquarters.
“The provisional information for 2014 means that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all occurred in the 21st century,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “There is no standstill in global warming.”
Climate skeptics point to a perceived hiatus in the temperature rise since 1998, an exceptionally hot year, to support their claims that man-made warming is not a big problem. Most climate scientists reject that idea. The Associated Press
