Paris. The European Union’s climate watchdog said on Wednesday that 2023 is likely to be the hottest year in human history. During the Northern Hemisphere summer, global temperatures were the warmest on record. Over the past three months, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America have severely impacted economies, ecosystems and human health. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report that the average global temperature in June, July and August was 16.77 degrees Celsius (62.19 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record of 16.48 degrees in 2019.
“The three months we’ve just had are the hottest in nearly 120,000 years of human history,” C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess told AFP. Last month was the warmest August on record and warmer than all other months except July 2023. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the climate breakdown has begun. Scientists have long warned about the consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels. The climate is deteriorating faster than we can handle, with extreme weather events affecting every corner of the planet.’
2023 will be the hottest year ever experienced by mankind
Record-high global sea surface temperatures have played a major role in increasing warming throughout the summer. Marine heat waves occurred in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Given the additional heat we have in the surface ocean, 2023 is likely to be the warmest year on record, Burgess said. Average global temperatures in the first eight months of 2023 are the second warmest on record, just 0.01C below the benchmark 2016 level, the report said. If the Northern Hemisphere has a ‘normal’ winter, Burgess said, ‘we can almost say that 2023 will be the warmest year ever experienced by mankind.’
The oceans are warming
According to scientists, the oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat generated by human activity since the beginning of the industrial age. This excess heat continues to be stored as greenhouse gases—primarily from burning oil, gas, and coal—build up in Earth’s atmosphere. Except for the polar regions, the global average sea surface temperature in March 2016 exceeded the previous record for every day this summer from July 31 to August 31. Since April, average ocean temperatures have regularly topped seasonal heat records.
Biggest negative anomaly ever
Warmer oceans are also less able to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), leading to a vicious cycle of global warming and disrupting fragile ecosystems. C3S said Antarctic sea ice remained at a record low for the time of year, 12 percent below the monthly average, the largest negative anomaly for August since satellite observations began in the 1970s.
High temperatures are likely
The El Nino weather phenomenon—which warms the waters of the South Pacific and beyond—has just begun. Scientists expect the worst effects of the current El Niño to be felt by late 2023 and into next year. At the 2015 Paris climate summit, countries agreed to keep global temperature rise “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an ambitious target of 1.5C. A report from UN experts this week will assess the world’s progress in meeting the target and inform leaders ahead of a high-stakes climate summit starting on November 30 in Dubai.
Urgent action must be taken now for climate solutions
The so-called “global stocktake” is expected to show that countries are far behind in meeting their commitments. “Rising temperatures spur action,” Guterres said. Leaders must act now to address climate change. The C3S findings come from a computer-generated analysis using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. Proxy data such as tree rings and snowflakes allow scientists to compare modern temperatures with data from before records began in the mid-19th century.
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Tags: Change in atmosphere, Forests and climate change, United Nations
First published: September 06, 2023, 18:15 IST