As the Planet Warms, Trump's EPA Pick Hedges
WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Wednesday morning, scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally reported news that almost everyone in the climate community already knew: 2016 was the hottest year ever measured, the warmest since people began keeping detailed temperature records in 1880. It is the third year in a row that has broken the planetary heat record. A streak like this has never occurred before; the chances of this happening naturally are vanishingly small.
It was a doleful year for the planet. Hundreds of of the Great Barrier Reef bleached and withered, the worst die-off ever observed. Arctic sea ice—the continent of white that materializes at the North Pole every winter—. Rising oceans , costing the tourism business at Miami Beach and plaguing the U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia.
