Earth is breaking all of the wrong records

 

Earth is breaking all of the wrong records

Spanish version here

By Laura Millan The world is feeling the heat. Globally temperatures in June, July and August were 0.66 degrees Celsius above the average between 1991 and 2020, according to Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus.  Last month was the warmest August on record globally and the second-warmest month ever — only after July 2023.

 

“The scientific evidence is overwhelming,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. “We will continue to see more climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems, until we stop emitting greenhouse gases.”

A pedestrian lays in the shade during high temperatures at La Setas in central Seville, Spain, on Thursday, July 6, 2023. Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg Human emissions of greenhouse gases have warmed the planet by about 1.1C since pre-industrial times. Intense heat and sudden rains have resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and billions in losses on every continent. Efforts to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint are still not enough to slow the pace of climate change, with global emissions hitting a record in 2022.

 

This year is on track to be one of the hottest, with the first eight months of the year ranking second-warmest, only 0.01C below frontrunner 2016.

What’s happened so far

Heat in the atmosphere over the past few months was worsened by a long period of unusually high temperatures that started in April. Records have been broken from Phoenix to Tokyo, while atmospheric and marine heat waves have unleashed fires and deadly storms.  The ocean is a hot tub. Buoys off the coast of Florida have been measuring water temperatures in the 90s F — creating an environment that’s supercharging hurricanes. Meanwhile, temperatures in the North Atlantic breached a new record of 25.19 C (77.3 F) on Aug. 31. Even the Mediterranean Sea has seen unprecedented temperatures this year. A pathway leading to Porto Rotondo, near Olbia, on the island of Sardinia, Italy, on July 18, 2023. Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg Canada is still burning. The country’s record-breaking wildfire season — which began earlier than usual this year — has so far scorched an area of land larger than Bangladesh. There’s trouble down south. Antarctic sea ice hit an all-time low in February and has struggled to grow back. This has had devastating consequences for emperor penguins, which failed to breed at a level never seen before in parts of Antarctica. Winter vanished in the Andes. Temperatures soared in Chile and Argentina last month due to a combination of climate change and El Niño, posing a threat to the snowpack high up in the Andes mountains, which Chilean farms and cities depend on in the long dry summer months. What’s changing? The global rise in temperatures is fueling destructive natural disasters from wildfires to floods that are taking lives and homes of people on this planet. And yet it’s also altering everyday life in less dramatic, but increasingly burdensome, ways as well.  It’s too hot to be at home. Millions of families are struggling in hot houses and apartments across the UK and Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent due to climate change. Heat waves in the region are becoming more frequent and intense, creating livability issues in cities that have long gotten by without air-conditioning. Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg In some places it’s too hot to work. An insurance policy for women in India is paying out when daily temperatures reach levels that make it impossible to do their work outdoors.  Dirty dishes are piling up. Some Spanish villages are so low on water that restaurants are leaving plates unwashed overnight until more water is trucked into town.  Vacations have become nightmares. Wildfires in Greece and Hawaii forced the evacuations of thousands of tourists this year. While heat waves across the European continent have cancelled outdoor daytime activities.  Tropical night 71.1 F UK minimum temperatures after sunset may test the 21.7C (71.1F) September record on Wednesday and Thursday. Extreme measures "There will come a time when people will need to wear cooling clothing with sensors in, just to walk across the street. It’s not tomorrow. It’s not the next day. [But] it’s absolutely inevitable." James Russell Co-founder and managing director of Techniche From fabric that reflects sunlight to apparel that comes with its own thermostat, companies are creating outfit options to help people cope amid more intense heat. Weather watch   By Brian K. Sullivan Tropical Storm Lee is on track to tie Hurricane Franklin to become 2023’s strongest Atlantic storm with winds of 150 miles per hour by this weekend as it plows through the ocean north of Puerto Rico, the US National Hurricane Center said.   The year’s 13th storm, counting an unnamed system in January, Lee will likely become the season’s third hurricane late Wednesday before exploding in strength in the next four days, reaching Category 4 on the five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale.   The Atlantic is so far having a more active storm season that normal. The 13th storm usually arrives by Oct. 25, the third hurricane by Sept. 7 and the third major hurricane, with winds of 111 mph or more, by Oct. 28, if it comes at all. Record warm water across the Atlantic has provided fuel for storms this year pushing them ahead of pace.    Despite its power, Lee is currently forecast to miss inhabited areas as it drifts northwest through the ocean in the next five days, though Bermuda should remain vigilant.    In addition to Lee, there are two other potential storms brewing in the Atlantic, and in the Pacific, Hurricane Jova continues to build strength far off the coast of Mexico. Further to the west, Tropical Storm Yun-yeung could gain strength and graze Japan’s east coast later this week, where warnings for heavy rain and landslides have been posted.   Source; https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ASzdyi2b6bE/laura-millan