By Anthony Marcusa / Source: Ecorazzi

It was to be expected, and became no longer about when we would find out, but what we would find out. 2015 was indeed the hottest year in recorded history, and it wasn’t close.

A hot and wet December, caused by one of the stronger El Niño in a hundred years, saw the hottest year on Earth, and the United States record the second-hottest year ever. And while the noted weather patterns caused chaos in the U.S. in terms of floods and disasters elsewhere in the world, including droughts in southern Africa, it is human emissions of greenhouse gases that have driven these record-setting temperatures, according to scientists.

“The whole system is warming up, relentlessly,” said Gerald A. Meehl, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Temperatures around the world were 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (about 0.9 Celsius) above the 20th century average. 2014 was the previous hottest year on record, with a 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit tally. What’s more, 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred in the 21st century, and these back-to-back record breakers that look to keep the planet on a perilous path.

“Is there any evidence for a pause in the long-term global warming rate?” said Gavin A. Schmidt, head of NASA’s climate-science unit. “The answer is no. That was true before last year, but it’s much more obvious now.”

While some politicians continue to dispute the trend, or at least that it’s cause by man, these calculations where conducted separately by both NASA and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. On a national level, early data suggests that both Japan and Britain will have experienced their hottest years as well.

For the U.S., December 2015 holds the dubious distinction of being the only month ever records to be both the hottest and the wettest.

Temperature records were first taken in 1880. With El Niño continuing this year, and a lack of substantial reductions in greenhouse emissions, it looks likely that 2016 will set a new record.

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