“It’s particularly striking that we set a global temperature record,” despite a lower than expected effect from El Nino, an ocean condition that brings warmer weather, said Brenda Ekwurzel, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Long-term, we can expect this record to be broken again and again,” she said.
Environmentalists said the report should serve as a call to action.
“The record temperatures last year should focus the minds of governments across the world on the scale of the risks that climate change is creating,” said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change.
He called for an international deal “to strongly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to be reached at the United Nations climate change summit in Paris in December 2015.”
In the meantime, Schmidt said there are things people can and should do in their everyday lives to turn the tide.
“There are things that people individually can do to reduce their carbon footprint, like having better appliances, driving less, walking more, biking. I try and do those things,” he said.
“This is an issue that is not going to go away.”
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