Post date: Nov 15, 2016 5:55:43 PM

2016 likely to top 2015 as hottest year on record, scientists say

By Sewell Chan NEW YORK TIMES NOVEMBER 14, 2016

NEW YORK — This year will be “very likely” the hottest on record, with global temperatures breaking the previous record, set in 2015, scientists with the World Meteorological Organization announced Monday.

The announcement is no surprise to climate scientists — experts at NASA had already projected that 2016 would be a third year of record heat — and the record will not be definitive until early next year.

But the latest estimate of record-shattering heat comes as world leaders gather in Marrakesh, Morocco, for the annual United Nations talks on limiting the impact of climate change. The meeting is taking place in an atmosphere of alarm.

President-elect Donald Trump has called human-caused climate change a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese; has vowed to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency “in almost every form”; and has named Myron Ebell of the business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute, who has deep oil industry ties, to head his EPA transition team.