Massive Study Says Earth Getting Warmer

More than a billion temperature readings from around the world say the mercury has gone up by one degree over the past half-century.

The world's most comprehensive study of temperature readings from around the world found that the average temperature on the planet has increased by one degree Celsius since the 1950s. The Berkeley Earth project was launched after a scandal erupted over manipulation of climate data at the University of East Anglia, leading countless climate-change skeptics to claim that the whole notion is a hoax. So, a bunch of organizations, including NASA, a slew of universities, and, hilariously, the Koch brothers, the American billionaires who've funded the Tea Party movement and numerous anti-climate-change lobby groups, pitched in funds to review the more than a billion temperature readings from around the world since the 1800s. And those reading showed pretty indisputably that yes, the Earth's temperature is rising, even if the researchers haven't said whether this temperature increase can be solely pinned on humans. The team did suggest that fluctuating temperatures in the North Atlantic have contributed to more erratic weather systems around the world, though.