It was a big couple days for climate change.

A day after Pope Francis said global warming is "mostly" man-made and that "man has slapped nature in the face," NASA reported that 2014 was the hottest year on record.

Actually, separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists reached the conclusion that 2014 ranks as the warmest year since 1880.

Suddenly, global warming was a hot topic for global discussion.

The New York Times: 2014 Breaks Heat Record, Challenging Global Warming Skeptics

CBS News: 2014 proves hottest on record, driven in part by climate change

Washington Post: Scientists react to warmest year: 2014 underscores undeniable fact of human-caused climate change

Announced Friday, the findings by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York were based on a global analysis using readings from weather stations around the world. The scientists found that the average global temperate has increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the first available temperature records in 1880.

"That might not seem very much, but in terms of climate change, it's actually a big deal," said Dr. Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Noting that the Midwest had a cold winter while the West saw record high temperatures, the narrator in the above NASA video said: "Scientists expect global and regional fluctuations in temperature from year to year due to changing weather patterns." Then she explained the main reason for the rising temperatures: The increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

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NASA, NOAA, Pope Francis make climate change hottest topic