According to the European Union's climate change monitoring service, the world just had its warmest January on record, making it the first 12-month period in which average temperatures were more than 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial periods. This was announced on Thursday.
Due to a combination of El Nino, a weather pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and human-caused climate change, 2023 was already the warmest year on record for the entire planet since 1850.
"It is a significant milestone to see the global mean temperature for a 12-month period exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures for the first time," Matt Patterson, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oxford, said.
Based on information dating back to 1950, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) indicates that the warmest January on record occurred in 2020.
At the 2015 United Nations climate talks in Paris, nations decided to keep global warming well below 2C (3.6F) and strive to keep it below 1.5C, a threshold thought to be essential to averting the worst effects.
Since the United Nations accord refers to an average global temperature over decades, the first 12-month period of exceeding 1.5C does not yet indicate that the Paris objective has been missed.
To minimise the amount of target overshoot, some scientists have urged governments to move more quickly to reduce CO2 emissions. They claim, however, that the 1.5C goal can no longer be realistically accomplished.
"Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing," C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said.
At the same time, as lawmakers vie for reelection in a record number of democratic elections, economic weakness and political pressures are testing the government's will to enact laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We are heading towards a catastrophe if we don't fundamentally change the way we produce and consume energy within a few years," Denmark's Global Climate Policy Minister Dan Jorgensen told Reuters. We don't have long," he said.
Is 2024 Going to Be Even Warmer?
Comparing June 2023 to the equivalent month in previous years, every month since then has been the warmest on record worldwide.
According to American scientists, 2024 has a 99% likelihood of being among the top five warmest years and a one-in-three possibility of being even hotter than the previous year.
Scientists have shown that El Nino, which started to wane last month, may eventually give way to its colder counterpart, La Nina, later in the year. Nevertheless, last month's average worldwide sea surface temperatures were the highest for any January ever recorded.
In some places of South America, which is experiencing the summer season in the southern hemisphere, the temperatures are scorching when it is winter in the northern hemisphere.
Between January 21 and 31, Argentina experienced a heatwave; on the same day, Santiago, the capital of Chile, recorded its third-highest temperature ever, surpassing 37 degrees Celsius.
Early in February, at least 131 people died as a result of flames brought on by the extreme heat in central Chile.
(Source:www.theprint.in)
Due to a combination of El Nino, a weather pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and human-caused climate change, 2023 was already the warmest year on record for the entire planet since 1850.
"It is a significant milestone to see the global mean temperature for a 12-month period exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures for the first time," Matt Patterson, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oxford, said.
Based on information dating back to 1950, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) indicates that the warmest January on record occurred in 2020.
At the 2015 United Nations climate talks in Paris, nations decided to keep global warming well below 2C (3.6F) and strive to keep it below 1.5C, a threshold thought to be essential to averting the worst effects.
Since the United Nations accord refers to an average global temperature over decades, the first 12-month period of exceeding 1.5C does not yet indicate that the Paris objective has been missed.
To minimise the amount of target overshoot, some scientists have urged governments to move more quickly to reduce CO2 emissions. They claim, however, that the 1.5C goal can no longer be realistically accomplished.
"Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing," C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said.
At the same time, as lawmakers vie for reelection in a record number of democratic elections, economic weakness and political pressures are testing the government's will to enact laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We are heading towards a catastrophe if we don't fundamentally change the way we produce and consume energy within a few years," Denmark's Global Climate Policy Minister Dan Jorgensen told Reuters. We don't have long," he said.
Is 2024 Going to Be Even Warmer?
Comparing June 2023 to the equivalent month in previous years, every month since then has been the warmest on record worldwide.
According to American scientists, 2024 has a 99% likelihood of being among the top five warmest years and a one-in-three possibility of being even hotter than the previous year.
Scientists have shown that El Nino, which started to wane last month, may eventually give way to its colder counterpart, La Nina, later in the year. Nevertheless, last month's average worldwide sea surface temperatures were the highest for any January ever recorded.
In some places of South America, which is experiencing the summer season in the southern hemisphere, the temperatures are scorching when it is winter in the northern hemisphere.
Between January 21 and 31, Argentina experienced a heatwave; on the same day, Santiago, the capital of Chile, recorded its third-highest temperature ever, surpassing 37 degrees Celsius.
Early in February, at least 131 people died as a result of flames brought on by the extreme heat in central Chile.
(Source:www.theprint.in)
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