Since NASA began to make the first records in 1880 on global temperature, the annual average has been registering an upward trend that has been confirmed with the latest data for 2012. Information that reflects the dynamics of current global warming, which means that the emission of greenhouse gases continues to rise, as well as extreme weather events.

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in its latest report points out that the average temperature reached 14.6 degrees Celsius in 2012, which is 0.8 degrees more than in 1880. With the exception of 1998, the nine years with the highest temperatures on record have occurred since 2000, placing 2005 and 2010 as the warmest, according to the latest NASA data.

However, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States (NOAA) 2012 has been ranked as the tenth highest year, a disparate figure due to the use of different methodologies by both institutions.

In any case, both agencies point to the upward trend in global temperature and estimates indicate that this increase will continue in the future due to the continuous increase in the levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Another of the data highlighted by NOAA indicates that 2012 is the thirty-sixth year that an above-average temperature recorded in the twentieth century is recorded, placing the last 12 years among the 14 warmest.

Among the consequences of this increase in temperature has been a record melting in the Arctic and the extent of Antarctic sea ice was above average for most of 2012 while Alaska, Canada and Central Asia have recorded a cooling of their average temperature.

In this regard, the president of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, who participated this week in the IPCC meeting held in Hobart (Australia) to prepare the fifth report on climate change for the UN, has pointed out that “if you look at the trend, (one will realize that) is quite unequivocal and any correct analysis (on climate change) will indicate that we are heading in that direction.”