Political cartoon about how the human race goes into a path of self destruction

2016 is a wrap - and with it, likely the hottest year ever recorded. Temperatures weren’t the only anomaly: Louisiana, for instance, saw floods so severe they should only happen every 1,000 years.

According to Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University, the two events are related: "The bottom line here is that the atmosphere is warmer than it was, [meaning it] holds more moisture than it used to," he says. "When conditions are conducive to rainfall, you’re going to get more of it." But the heat can be drying, too. Just talk to ranchers in Texas or Oklahoma who recently suffered through the worst drought on record, Mann says, or look to the drought currently baking California: "For all those people, catastrophic climate change has already arrived."

But despite the evidence, many Americans still deny that global temperatures are on a devastating path: President-elect Donald Trump, for one, has called global warming a "hoax" on numerous

2016 is a wrap - and with it, likely the hottest year ever recorded. Temperatures weren’t the only anomaly: Louisiana, for instance, saw floods so severe they should only happen every 1,000 years.

According to Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University, the two events are related: "The bottom line here is that the atmosphere is warmer than it was, [meaning it] holds more moisture than it used to," he says. "When conditions are conducive to rainfall, you’re going to get more of it." But the heat can be drying, too. Just talk to ranchers in Texas or Oklahoma who recently suffered through the worst drought on record, Mann says, or look to the drought currently baking California: "For all those people, catastrophic climate change has already arrived."

But despite the evidence, many Americans still deny that global temperatures are on a devastating path: President-elect Donald Trump, for one, has called global warming a "hoax" on numerous