2023-11-08 08:14:02
This October was the warmest on record worldwide, 1.7 degrees Celsius (3.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month — and the record-breaking fifth in a row in what will be, almost certainly the hottest year in history.
October was 0.4º Celsius (0.7º Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous record for the month, in 2019, surprising even Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European agency that publishes monthly bulletins regarding the temperature of the land and sea surface, among other data.
“The difference by which we are breaking records is staggering,” Burgess said.
Following the accumulated warming in recent months, 2023 is almost guaranteed to be the hottest year ever recorded, according to Copernicus.
Scientists who monitor climate variables to understand how the planet is evolving as a result of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. A warmer planet means more extreme and intense weather events, such as severe droughts or hurricanes that retain more water, said Peter Schlosser, vice president and vice provost of the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. Schlosser is not involved in Copernicus.
“This is a clear indication that we are entering a climate regime that will have more impacts on more people,” Schlosser said. “We better take this warning that we really should have taken 50 years or more ago and draw the consequences. appropriate conclusions.”
This year has been exceptionally warm in part because of warming oceans, which means they are doing less to counteract global warming than in the past. Historically, the ocean has absorbed up to 90% of the excess heat caused by climate change, Burgess said. And in the midst of El Niño, a natural climate cycle that temporarily warms part of the ocean and causes changes in climate around the world, higher temperatures can be expected in the coming months, he added.
According to Schlosser, this means the world should expect more records to be broken as a result of that warming, but the question is whether they will occur on a smaller scale. The planet has already exceeded 1.5º Celsius (2.7º Fahrenheit) of warming compared to the pre-industrial era, the level at which the Paris Agreement sought to limit it, and the planet has not yet seen the full impact of that warming, he pointed out. Now, he, Burgess and other scientists argue that the need for action — to curb planet-warming emissions — is urgent.
“It is much more expensive to continue burning those fossil fuels than it would be to stop doing so. This is basically what it shows,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. “And, of course, you don’t see that when you only look at the records that are being broken and not at the people or systems that are suffering, but that (…) is what matters.”
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Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. Walling is on X, formerly known as Twitter at: @MelinaWalling.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage is supported by several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for the content.
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