People of Earth: We Survived the Hottest September Ever, Again

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Last month was the hottest in recorded history, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

"September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping," the GISS said Tuesday.

According to meteorological records, 11 of the past 12 consecutive months since October 2015 have hit a new record, with the exception of June 2016, which previously was considered the hottest June on record but turned out to be "the third warmest June behind 2015 and 1998 after receiving additional temperature readings from Antarctica." GISS director Gavin Schmidt explained that monthly rankings are sensitive to updates, and, though newsworthy, are not as important as long-term trends.

"Monthly rankings, which vary by only a few hundredths of a degree, are inherently fragile," he said. "We stress that the long-term trends are the most important for understanding the ongoing changes that are affecting our planet."

September 2016's temperature was 0.004 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest September of 2014, and 0.91 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean temperature for the month from 1951-1980, according to the GISS statement.

A security personnel stands guard outside one of the venues of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit, in Benaulim in the western state of Goa, India, October 14, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Climate scientists have shown that global warming is human-caused, due to greenhouse gases emitted in various ways, including carbon dioxide, a byproduct of internal combustion engines that burn fossil fuels. Other emissions contributing to the greenhouse effect include gases used in refrigerators, methane, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, and chlorofluorocarbons, which are currently banned in much of the world. Deforestation is an important factor in climate change as well. Water vapor works as a feedback mechanism to the greenhouse effect, according to NASA.

While much of humanity attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change by limiting emission levels, some scientists suggest that it is too late to stop global warming. James Hansen, an American climatologist and former NASA scientist, claimed that it is highly unlikely that the goals of the Paris agreement emissions accords, to limit the average temperature rise, will be achieved.

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