Summary: | Global warming and increasing extreme weather events are two important facts under climate change. In 2014, the global average surface temperature surged to a new high, ranking as the Earth’s warmest year since 1850. Using the observational datasets of land surface temperature, sea-surface temperature (SST), ocean heat content, precipitation, sea ice extent, etc. from 1850 to 2014, this paper, from the perspective of climate change, examines the observational evidence in the warmest year by comprehensively analyzing the changing characteristics of the global surface temperature, ocean heat content as well as the surface temperature in key regions. Meanwhile, this paper analyzes the possible cause of the warmest year from the factors of human activities and the ocean forcing. Finally, based on these analyses, the authors point out some possible damage caused by climate warming and further present some necessary approaches to combating climate warming. Warmest year, observational evidence, climate system, climate warming, cause analysis
|