Humanity Has Veered Into ‘Uncharted Territory’

AFP/APP

Paris: Europe’s climate monitor said 2023 is likely to be the warmest year in history, with scientists saying pressure is on world leaders to curb greenhouse gas pollution as they prepare to meet in Dubai for the UNCOP28 climate conference this month.

Last month was the hottest October on record globally; October was 1.7 °C warmer than an estimate of the October average for the preindustrial era,stated climate monitor on Wednesday.

Drought parched parts of the United States and Mexico during October, while huge swathes of the planet saw wetter than normal conditions often linked to storms and cyclones, said the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

Sea surface temperatures are the highest ever recorded for the month, a phenomenon driven by global warming that scientists say plays a key role in driving storms to be more ferocious and destructive.

C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess told that we can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record and is currently 1.43°C above the preindustrial average.

The landmark Paris Agreement saw nearly 200 countries pledge to limit global warming to well below 2°Csince the pre-industrial era, and preferably to a safer 1.5°C.These temperature thresholds will be measured as an average over several decades rather than a single year.

This year has also seen the beginning of a warming El Nino weather phenomenon which warms waters in the southern Pacific and stokes hotter weather beyond, although scientists expect the worst effects to be felt at the end of 2023 and into next year.

Global average temperatures since January have been the highest in records going back to 1940, registering 1.43 °C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, said climate monitor.

Beyond these official records, scientists say proxy data for the climate going back further–like tree rings or ice cores–suggests the temperatures seen this year could be unprecedented in human history, potentially the warmest in more than 100,000 years.

Average sea surface temperatures for the month, excluding the polar regions, also reached all-time highs for October at 20.79°C.

Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists.

Warmer oceans are linked to an increase in the intensity of storms and the melting of crucial ice shelves buffering the vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, threatening destructive sea level rise.

A warmer atmosphere also holds more moisture, resulting in heavier rainfall.

People across the planet have faced heatwaves and droughts this year, while severe flooding has struck in the US, China, India, and beyond.

In Canada, record wildfires partly related to climate change released more carbon dioxide than the country’s total 2021 greenhouse gas emissions, according to a ‘State of the Climate’ report

The report warned that humanity had veered into “uncharted territory” with warming that imperilled life on Earth.

Leaders meeting in the United Arab Emirates for the November 30 to December 12 COP28 conference will have to respond to a damning progress report on the world’s Paris pledges after major scientific reports have made it clear that the world is far off track.

Carbon emissions, largely from fossil fuels, continue to creep up when they need to be slashed in half this decade.Just under 1.2°Cof temperature rise above pre-industrial levels has triggered a range of calamitous and costly weather extremes.