El Niño, a phenomenon highlighted by warmer-than-usual sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, is capable of changing weather around the globe. The State of the Climate report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and described as Earth’s “annual physical,” finds that the health of the planet has, once again, fallen into uncharted territory. A devastating dose of long-term climate change combined with a strong El Niño in 2015 seemingly left every major climate record on the books shattered, according to an annual international climate report released Tuesday. In 2015, greenhouse gas concentrations, global surface temperatures, sea surface temperature, global upper ocean heat content and global sea levels all toppled previous record highs. He added that the “slew of record warm years over the past two decades” can only be explained when taking into account human-caused global warming.

Source: Huffington Post August 03, 2016 02:03 UTC