It has recently been claimed that 2014 was the hottest year on record, ever since record-keeping began in 1880. According to The Guardian, global temperatures were 1.24F (0.69C) higher than the 20th-century average.

The data was confirmed by two separate data sets from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. USA Today reports that the Japan Meteorological Agency also found 2014 was the planet's warmest.

Jonathan Overpeck, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Arizona, stated, "Humans are literally cooking their planet... It just shows that human emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, are taking over the Earth's climate system. The data are clear: The Earth is warming, and humans are causing the bulk of this warming."

However, some scientists are not in agreement with 2014 being the hottest year. Climatologist Judith Curry stated, "With 2014 essentially tied with 2005 and 2010 for hottest year, this implies that there has been essentially no trend in warming over the past decade."

Marc Morano - creator of the Climate Depot website - said, "This immeasurable difference is not even within the margin of error of temperature gauges. The claim of the 'hottest year' is simply a political statement not based on temperature facts."  According to WND, Morano's website routinely debunks claims of global warming.

Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, is looking at the big picture. He stated, "Any one year being a record warm one is not in itself particularly significant, but this is one in a series of record warm years that are driven by the continuing underlying long-term global warming.

He continued, "We expect that heat records will continue to get broken - not everywhere and not every year - but increasingly, and that does not bode well for a civilization that is continuing to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at an increasing rate."