2014 is the hottest average temperature on Earth since records began.
It’s only half a degree (Celsius) up on the 20th Century average, but that’s still half a degree in a human lifetime. This is no longer a geological-scale process of warming.
To bring this back home quite succinctly, this animation demonstrates the process of rising temperatures very well.
Two points to make a note on – the 1944 record stood for 36 years, until 1980; note also the massive jump between 1997 (a record year) and 1998 (another record year) – and it’s not as though that record stood for years, it was surpassed not very long after at all.
Undoubtedly, we’ll still get idiots in the government claiming that the planet’s been cooling down recently and that there’s no need to move from carbon intensive energy sources.
That’s where I wonder if they’re just listening to someone with a political agenda, or if they ever actually ask to look at evidence…