April was a scorcher, and so were March, February, January, December, November and October according to data out Monday by NASA. According to the new figures from the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the global average temperature for April was 1.11-degrees Celsius (1.998-degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1951-1980 baseline, making it the warmest April on record. April is the seventh month in a row to break records.
NASA’s news got some attention Monday during the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Bonn Climate Change Conference taking place now through May 26. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres was careful to note that the warming trend cannot be attributed solely to climate change. “The current records are a combination of El Niño, which is a completely natural phenomenon, as well as the overlap with climate change, which is a man-made phenomenon,” Figueres.
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, also noted the record-breaking temps during a press conference in Bonn Monday. “Clearly the physical climate is speaking to us and underlying the message of urgency that we need to get moving here,” he said.
