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As politicians struggle to arrive at greenhouse gas reducing agreements, the world has continued heating up, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Thursday. According to NASA data, May 2017 was the second-warmest May for our warming planet in all 137 years that records have been kept.
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May 2017 takes only a close second, trailing behind May 2016 for the title of hottest recorded month of May. The third warmest May on record took place in 2014.
May 2017 was only 0.05 degrees Celsius cooler than in 2016, and is 0.88 degrees Celcius warmer than the mean average for May from 1951-1980.
Although it is possible for scientists to gather solid estimates of global atmospheric temperatures long into the past, modern record-keeping that could measure at various points around the globe only began in 1880.
The analysis is carried out by roughly 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, inluding ship and buoy stations in the oceans. The data is consolidated and analyzed by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
According to NASA data, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at their highest in 650,000 years at 406.17 parts per million.
Melting polar and Antarctic ice, as well as changes in weather patterns not only wreak havoc on ecosystems, but on the human societies that are dependent on them. Drought and unpredictable weather can cause a loss of livelihood, having an especially devastating effect on poorer, more vulnerable communities.
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