Earth surpassed the internationally agreed-upon global warming threshold on Friday, raising concerns about climate change and its potential catastrophic consequences, despite this breach being brief. Preliminary data suggests that global temperatures increased by over two degrees Celsius from the period when humans first started burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate a failure of measures taken to reduce global warming.
While crossing the two-degree Celsius threshold for just a day may not be conclusive, it serves as a significant indicator of the extreme global temperatures experienced in 2023, according to Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist with Stripe and Berkeley Earth.
Scientists typically consider the average global temperature breached only when it consistently surpasses the two-degree benchmark for extended periods. Nevertheless, this ominous milestone signals a concerning trend in climate change.
Consistent breaches of the global average temperature threshold could lead to the hazardous impacts of global warming that scientists have long warned about. The recent breach, driven by everyday variations around global temperature standards, comes after months of record warmth, defying expectations.
Dr. Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, highlighted on social media that global temperatures on Friday were 1.17 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, a record-setting margin. This was identified as the first day when the global temperature exceeded two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, at 2.06°C.
While the European model used for this estimation is based on real-time climate conditions using the same observations as weather predictions, scientists will soon confirm the record warmth through direct observations gathered and vetted in the coming weeks.
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