2018 Declared Fourth Hottest Year on Record

In response to data released by NASA and the U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declaring 2018 as the fourth warmest year on record globally,  World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued the following statement from Shaun Martin, senior director of climate change adaptation and resilience: 

“This is yet another reminder that our future will not resemble our past. Even if we dramatically curb emissions in the coming years, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. We’ve already locked in certain levels of warming which will continue to harm millions of people and nature in the US and worldwide.

“It’s incredibly risky not to prepare communities for these looming impacts. The sooner we’re able to systematically apply the latest climate science to redesign our infrastructure, cities, and policies and rethink how we manage our natural resources, the better off all Americans will be. We need to build communities that can weather the superstorms of the future, not storms of the past.”

“Government leaders have an opportunity to step up this year by submitting new and stronger national climate goals. Those plans must be clear on how governments will help communities adapt to increasingly severe weather and pledge stronger emissions cuts. Continuing to ignore the reality of current and growing risks associated with climate change would be a failure of political and moral leadership and completely out of step with our current climate emergency.”