Some climate experts have called July 2023 the warmest month in 120,000 years, with temperatures 1.3-1.7°C above the pre-industrial average.
23 hottest days were registered for the month, and July 6 became the warmest day in the world, the BBC reports.
The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said that the planet is entering an era of global boiling. And US President Joe Biden called climate change an existential threat and that no one can deny the impact of climate change anymore.
According to scientists, such warming is associated with the use of fossil fuels, as well as with:
- El Niño climate phenomenon;
- the eruption of the underwater volcano Tonga, which increased the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere;
- by reducing the number of aerosols in the atmosphere.
Dr. Carsten Haustein of the University of Leipzig estimated that July 2023 will be 1.3-1.7°C above average July temperatures recorded before the widespread use of fossil fuels.
"This will not only be the warmest July, but also the warmest month in terms of absolute average global temperature," he said. "We may have to go back thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet."
It is noted that such temperature records do not violate the Paris climate agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C. After all, the agreement outlines a long-term increase in global warming. However, as recent heat waves have shown, the effects of climate change increase with every fraction of a degree of warming.
"The extreme weather that affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately a harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future," said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas. "The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever. Climate Action – this is not a luxury, but a necessity."
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in Europe the heat wave spread to Spain, because of which the risk of forest fires reached its maximum level in the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, a study by scientists from Copenhagen showed that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), that is, the system of ocean currents that includes the Gulf Stream, will stop between 2025 and 2095, with a higher probability in the 2050s .
