Whether you believe in global warming or not, records don’t lie. The records tell us that the Earth reached its highest temperature in 2016 for the third consecutive year. In fact, it is the first time that temperatures have exceeded the previous record three years in a row.There seems to be no question about the Earth warming up. Just what the consequences will be if this trend keeps up is not perfectly clear. Experts predict that if the warming trend continues, there will be a threat to both the natural world and to human civilization.Scientists say the warming is due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. They say because of the warming, the Earth is undergoing big changes. Heat extremes were especially noted in the Arctic. But Africa also was hit by the warming.The New York Times said: “El Niño has now ended and climate scientists almost universally expect 2017 to be cooler than the year before. But the scale of the heat burst has been startling to many of the experts, and some of them fear an accelerated era of global warming could be at hand over the next few years.”The finding that a record had been set for the third year in a row was released Wednesday by three government agencies. The modern era of global warming began in the 1970s after a period of relatively flat temperatures.It is not known exactly how the new president and his Cabinet will handle global warming. At one time on Twitter President Donald Trump said: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive.”At any rate, the warming trend is something else to worry about.