A new report from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found that 2014 was the warmest year on record for both land and the ocean—the warmest ever since record keeping began in 1880. In this podcast recording from The Takeaway, Dr. Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and a professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University, weighs in on the findings of the NOAA report.
December was the hottest month for combined land and ocean temperature. NASA scientists independently analyzed the data and reached the same conclusions. Today’s news comes on the heels of a damning report published yesterday in the journal Science which found that humans may be causing irreversible damage to our oceans and the animals living in it.
As reported here, NOAA is in the process of acquiring 5 Petaflops of supercomputing capacity to improve their weather forecasts.
So, is the planet doomed? Dr. Field says there is still time, but we must stop filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases.
