According to findings by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the year 2015 has broken the record for the hottest year in recorded history.

Given that the previous record holder was 2014, these findings point to an alarming trend that corroborates what can be only seen as undeniable proof of our global steps in the wrong direction. The effects of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere that have resulted in global climate change is an inescapable reality, and turning a blind eye toward this information will do nothing to rectify the problem at hand.

The amount of research indicating a rise in the global temperature is overwhelming and carried out by countries all over the world using different methods. Yet similar results are found across the board. American and British agencies have both published findings that the year 2015 has broken records compiled for nearly 150 years, but even in the face of seemingly definitive proof, we have those who wish to rule the country deny that these changes are occurring.

Denying the presence of the warming is not the political issue it has been conflated to be. A rise in global temperature has real and immediate consequence that will only worsen with a reluctance to accept and act on this reality.

Leveraging the ideology of political parties against the fate of the world is not only shortsighted, it also does a disservice to all those who live outside the immediate constituency of the United States. Global climate change is an issue that affects the population of the world, and only through a unified global effort can solutions be found.

Research conducted by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters deaths shows that the number of deaths because of extreme heat “over the past two decades is approaching 140,000 people” and last spring “an estimated 2,500 people” died in the second worst heat wave in India’s history.

The temptation to ignore the warming in an effort to alleviate fear of an inevitable truth cannot be allowed to detract from the necessary action needed to actually address the issue. World leaders have made strides to remedy the rise in the global temperature such as the Paris Agreement, negotiated to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, and these courses of action are the ones that need to be continued.

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Unanimous agreement and corresponding initiatives are the only measures that will result in a hospitable planet for generations to come, and if that mentality is in opposition to anyone’s agenda, then it should serve as clear motivation for a rethinking of said agenda. The fate of the planet trumps squabbles over who should be leading the planet, simply because there won’t be a planet to lead if we choose to willfully ignore a clear and present danger.