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2013 Declared As The Sixth Warmest Year On Record

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Mar 26, 2014 01:04 PM EDT

Researchers have confirmed 2013 as the sixth warmest year on record. Thirteen of the fourteen warmest years on record have all fallen in the 21st century and each of the last three decade has been warmer than the previous one. 

The report released by the World Meteorological Organization revealed that the decade 2001-2010 was the warmest decade on the record. 

The report also noted that temperatures in southern hemisphere rose significantly with Australia observing the hottest year on record and Argentina observing it's second hottest. 

In the report scientists even predicted in the next 87 years our planet will be the warmest ever.

Scientists for the first time reconstructed Earth's temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age using data from 73 sites around the world. They found that the earth today is warmer than it has been during 70 to 80% of the time over the last 11,300 years, according to Times of India.

"Naturally occurring phenomena such as volcanic eruptions or El Nino and La Nina events have always contributed to frame our climate, influenced temperatures or caused disasters like droughts and floods. But many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change. We saw heavier precipitation, more intense heat, and more damage from storm surges and coastal flooding as a result of sea level rise - as Typhoon Haiyan so tragically demonstrated in the Philippines," said WMO secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, according to TOI.

"There is no standstill in global warming," said Jarraud. "The warming of our oceans has accelerated, and at lower depths. More than 90% of the excess energy trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the oceans. Levels of these greenhouse gases are at record levels, meaning that our atmosphere and oceans will continue to warm for centuries to come. The laws of physics are non-negotiable." 

According to statistics from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), by the year 2100 glacial volume will decline by as much as 35-85%. 

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