"Last year was one of the world’s 10 hottest in records going back to the 19th century as concentrations of climate-changing greenhouses gases rose, a study showed.

Four international agencies reported the global average temperature was 0.2 to 0.21 Celsius (0.36 to 0.38 Fahrenheit) above the 1981 to 2010 average, making 2013 the second- to sixth-warmest year ever, according to the research edited by Jessica Blunden, a climatologist with ERT Inc., and Derek Arndt, chief of the climate monitoring branch at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

“I think the take-home message here is that the planet, the state of its climate, is changing more rapidly in today’s world than at any time in modern civilization,” Thomas Karl, director of the data center, said in a conference call with reporters today."

Brian K. Sullivan reports for Bloomberg News July 17, 2014. [2]