UK Met Office Projects Climate Change 'Hiatus' to End; 2015, 2016 to Be World's Hottest Years
ByThe United Kingdom's (UK) Meteorological Office projected the globe's perceived climate change hiatus to end with 2015 and 2016 breaking heat records.
According to Reuters, the Met Office released a report Monday that indicated the next two years could at least threaten to break all-time climate records. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization already pegged 2015 as the hottest year on record since such records began in the 19th century.
The U.N. is due to meet in Paris in two months to discuss a deal among about 200 countries that will ultimately implement a method to combat global climate change. The U.N. previously reported in 2013 that the world's warming climate has actually been stagnant since 1998 when compared to the last 50 years, Reuters noted.
"We know natural patterns contribute to global temperatures in any given year, but the very warm temperatures so far this year indicate the continued impact of (manmade) greenhouse gases," Stephen Belcher, the Met Office's Hadley Centre director, told BBC News. "With the potential that next year could be similarly warm, it's clear that our climate continues to change."
The Met Office researchers indicated the impending record-setting heat will be the result of an El Niño weather event in the Pacific Ocean, BBC News reported.
"A lot of those things are natural, we've had El Ninos when we were cavemen, that's been going on a long time, and similarly there is evidence for variations in the Atlantic going back 1,000 years through various proxy measures," Adam Scaife, a professor with the U.K.'s Met Office, told Sky News. "A lot of these things can occur without the influence of human beings.
"However, they are now occurring on top of the influence coming from man's activity, so when they occur, when an El Nino comes and raises the global temperature, that is the icing on the cake, that is the extra bit that creates a record."