Unprecedented global warming as 2016 approaches 1.5 °C mark

Global surface temperatures could get close to the 1.5 °C-above-preindustrial limit before the Paris climate agreement even comes into effect. That’s alarming news, considering that the deal aspires to limit global warming to no more than this. Last week Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, estimated that the average global temperature