A wildfire in Greece in August Ayhan Mehmet/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
THE official numbers aren’t in yet, but this past year was almost certainly the hottest on record, with high temperatures driving extreme events across the planet. From record-breaking wildfires in Canada to record-low levels of sea ice in Antarctica, researchers say this year’s weather phenomena were shocking, even if they were precisely what was anticipated with climate change.
“We’re getting to a point where one year was bound to happen where [the effects of climate change] would be so pervasive we started to pay attention,” says…