Explainer | Searing temperatures wreak havoc globally, UN chief says ‘climate breakdown has begun’

The world has broiled through, what the meteorologists call the most searing Northern Hemisphere summer that has ever been recorded, with August capping a season of severe temperatures.

Last month was not only the hottest August scientists ever recorded but also the second most warm month measured after July, said the World Meteorological Organisation and the European climate service Copernicus on Wednesday (September 6).

August was nearly 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial averages. 

As per a statement by the WMO and Copernicus, the oceans, which constitute 70% of the Earth’s surface, were recorded at about 21 C (69.8 F), which is the hottest ever and have set high-temperature marks for three consecutive months.

Scientists have blamed human practices like the burning of coal, oil and natural gas for climate change.

Climatologist Andrew Weaver said that world leaders and governments were also to be blamed for the current climate situation. 

“It’s time for global leaders to start telling the truth,” the Associated Press quoted Weaver, a professor at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria in Canada, as saying. “We will not limit warming to 1.5 C; we will not limit warming to 2.0 C. It’s all hands on deck now to prevent 3.0 C global warming — a level of warming that will wreak havoc worldwide.” 

Copernicus, which is a unit of the European Union’s space programme, has records going back to 1940, but in the United Kingdom and the United States, global records go back to the mid-1800s and those weather and science agencies are soon anticipated to report that the summer was a record-breaker.

“What we are observing, not only new extremes but the persistence of these record-breaking conditions, and the impacts these have on both people and planet, are a clear consequence of the warming of the climate system,” Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said.

While the world’s air and oceans were setting records for heat, Antarctica persisted with setting records for low amounts of sea ice, the WMO said.

“Antarctic sea ice extent was literally off the charts, and the global sea surface temperature was once again at a new record,” WMO’s secretary-general, Petteri Taalas, said in a statement released to the media. “It is worth noting that this is happening BEFORE we see the full warming impact of the El Nino event, which typically plays out in the second year after it develops.”

2023 likely to be the hottest year on record, says EU climate monitor

2023 is likely to be the hottest year in human history, said the EU climate monitor in a statement on Wednesday.

As per a report released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the average global temperature in June, July and August was 16.77 degrees Celsius (62.19 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the earlier record in the year 2019 which was 16.48C.

“The three months that we’ve just had are the warmest in approximately 120,000 years, so effectively human history,” news agency AFP quoted C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess as saying.

“Looking at the additional heat we have in the surface ocean, the probability is that 2023 will end up being the warmest year on record,” Burgess said.

The average global temperature recorded through the first eight months of 2023 is the second-hottest, with only 0.01C below the benchmark 2016 level.

If the Northern Hemisphere has a “normal” winter, “we can almost virtually say that 2023 will be the warmest year that humanity has experienced,” Burgess said.

‘Climate breakdown has begun,’ says Guterres

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned that the climate was breaking down.

“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“Our planet has just endured a season of simmering — the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun,” Guterres said.

“Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash,” he added. “Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope, with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet.”

Guterres further said that the surging temperatures demand a surge in action.

“Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions,” he said.

Scientists react to C3S report

“2023 is the year that climate records were not just broken but smashed,” news agency AFP quoted Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London as saying.

“Extreme weather events are now common and getting worse every year — this is a wake-up call to international leaders.”

“Global warming continues because we have not stopped burning fossil fuels, it is that simple,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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