WASHINGTON, D.C. : ’95 Called Hottest Year on Record

How hot was it? Last year was the hottest year on record, according to NASA’s top world temperature taker. The globe’s average temperature for 1995 was an estimated 59.8 degrees Fahrenheit, barely edging out 1990 and about 0.8 degree above the 1950-1980 average. That’s according to James E. Hansen, writing in the June 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters. It was Hansen who first brought the threat of global warming to national attention, telling a congressional committee in 1988 that he was “99%” sure that greenhouse warming was underway. “Over the next few years I would, with a pretty high degree of confidence, expect the global temperatures to exceed even the 1995 level,” he said in an interview.