There's little doubt among scientists that we're now probably experiencing the warmest climate in some 120,000 years, even reaching above a particularly warm period around 7,000 years ago, during a post-ice age era called the Holocene.
"I agree entirely that it's very likely the last few summers have been the warmest in the last ~100,000-115,000 years," David Black, a paleoclimatologist at Stony Brook University, said over email. "It's very probable that we've begun to exceed the warmest part of the Holocene."
"It is safe to say that it's true," added Jennifer Marlon, a research scientist at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, in an interview. "You'll find a scientific consensus among experts even on that point now I'd bet, which says a lot."
Marlon noted that during that hotter time 7,000 years ago, only the northern hemisphere experienced some pretty warm summers, "but now we are warmer year round."
Back in 2013, Rahmstorf
already argued that the current climate had already surpassed this warmest period of the Holocene. And in the last five years, the case has only grown stronger.