Wildfires. Flickr/Jared Yeh. Some rights reserved.In the past week, two events on opposite sides of the Pacific have sharpened awareness of climate change. Moreover, what is happening in Australia and Canada comes in the wake of what appears to be a sudden and unwelcome increase in global temperatures.
2014 was the warmest year since accurate records were first kept, and 2015 was warmer still. 2016 looks set to exceed both of those years. What is adding hugely to concerns among climate scientists, however, is that recent months have not just set new records for temperatures but have exceeded previous readings by a full degree centigrade or more.
April 2016 was the seventh month in a row in which records were broken. This would be highly unusual for any single month, but for it to happen for so many consecutive months takes the planet into unprecedented territory
