NPR

2018 Was A Milestone Year For Climate Science (If Not Politics)

2018 saw a string of more precise — and dire — assessments that a warming climate is affecting the weather. That didn't keep President Trump and others from questioning those scientific conclusions.

2018 was a hot year — in fact, the fourth warmest on record. The only years that were, on average, warmer were the past three, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

It has been warming for decades now. But 2018 brought several major new and markedly more precise reports from scientists about what climate change is doing to the weather and how dire they expect the consequences to be.

That didn't stop President Trump and others from continuing to question the evidence.

"Is there climate change?" Trump said to reporters from Axios on HBO in

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