Record global temperatures are shocking — and yet we don't respond seriously

We treat climate change records as we treat new fashions, phones or films. But we seem unable to understand that we are driving such changes

And another one bites the dust. The year 2014 was the warmest ever recorded by humans. Then 2015 was warmer still. January 2016 broke the record for the largest monthly temperature anomaly. Then came last month.

February didn't break climate change records - it obliterated them. Regions of the Arctic were were more than 16C warmer than normal - whatever constitutes normal now. But what is really making people stand up and notice is that the surface of the Earth north of the equator was 2C warmer than pre-industrial temperatures. This was meant to be a line that must not be crossed.