TOPSHOT – A helicopter flies overhead as a wildfire rages near Alexandroupoli, northern Greece, on August 21, 2023. The European Union announced it was deploying two Cyprus-based firefighting aircraft and a Romanian firefighting team through the bloc’s civil defense mechanism, as wildfires rage out of control in Greece for a third day. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS/AFP) (Photo by SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Sakis Mitrolidis | Afp | Getty Images
A staggering string of global temperature records means 2023 is now “almost certain” to be the warmest year on record, according to the EU’s climate change service.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday that this was the warmest October on record globally, noting an average surface temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius (59.54 degrees Fahrenheit) over the period. this.
That was 0.85 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for October and 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900.
The data, collected from measurements by satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world, shows that the global average temperature for the whole year so far is the highest on record . It leaves 2023 firmly on track to surpass the average temperature for 2016 – currently the warmest year on record.
Extreme heat is fueled by the climate crisis, and the burning of fossil fuels is the main reason for that.
Climate scientists said the findings were “like something out of a Hollywood movie” and attributed the rise in global temperatures to rising greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening El Niño event.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, said October’s notable temperature anomalies followed four months in which global temperature records were “obliterated”.
“We can say with certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record, and is currently 1.43ºC above the pre-industrial average,” Burgess said.
Referring to the upcoming 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, she said, “The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action going into COP28 has never been higher.
‘bit hot’
Policymakers and business leaders from around the world will meet in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates between November 30-December. 12 for speeches on how to deal with the worsening climate crisis.
Every year, ministers representing countries around the world gather at the COP to discuss how to achieve the ambitious goal of the famous 2015 Paris Agreement – reducing global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius after more than a century of fossil fuel burning as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. In fact, it is this increase in temperature that is causing a series of extreme weather events around the world.
This photo taken on October 28, 2023 shows smoke from wildfires on Mount Merbabu as seen from Batur town in Semarang, Central Java, amid a prolonged dry season triggered by the climate phenomenon El Nino.
Devi Rahman | Afp | Getty Images
C3S said El Niño conditions continued to develop in the Pacific, although the latest temperature anomalies remain below those reached during the historically strong events of 1997. and 2015 El Niño to develop.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern that contributes to higher temperatures around the globe. The UN weather agency announced that El Niño began on July 4, warning that it is returning, paving the way for a possible spike in global temperatures and severe weather.
“Put out so plainly, the 2023 numbers on air temperature, sea temperature, sea ice and the rest look like something out of a Hollywood movie,” said David Reay, climate scientist -climate at the University of Edinburgh, in statement. “In fact, if our current global efforts to tackle climate change were a movie, it would be called ‘Hot Mess’.”
Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, said it is important to clarify that October’s heat record should not be seen as “another big statistically interesting number.”
She said, “Within this year, extreme heat and drought made much worse by these extreme temperatures have caused thousands of deaths, people lost their livelihoods, displaced etc.
