Recent studies suggest that the sweltering North Hemisphere summer heatwave of last year, which sparked wildfires throughout the Mediterranean, buckled roads in Texas, and tested power grids in China, was not only the highest registered, but potentially the most severe in roughly two millennia. This sobering discovery emerged from two studies freshly launched on Tuesday, as escalating worldwide temperatures and increasing emissions driving climate change persist.
Long-standing historical climate records, dating back to mid-1800s, as well as data from analysing tree rings across nine key locations in the Northern Hemisphere, helped establish these findings. Scientists instantly labelled the June to August timeframe of last year as the most extreme heat observed since consistent record-keeping began in the 1940s. A research paper, published in Nature, goes further to imply that the searing heat experienced in 2023 surpassed temperatures over an extended trajectory.
Jan Esper, a climate scientist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany and co-author of the study, noted how vividly recent global warming stands out when scrutinised against historical trends. Last summer’s land temperatures, spanning from 30 to 90 degrees north latitude, were 2.07 degrees higher than the averages predating the industrial revolution, the research revealed. A significant 2.2 degrees higher average for the summer months of 2023 than the predicted average yearly temperature from 1 to 1890, was estimated through tree ring analysis.
Despite this revelation not being entirely unexpected – with scientists at the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, as early as January, citing the likelihood that 2023 was most probably the hottest year in around 100,000 years – verifying such an extensive record remains implausible, contends Mr Esper. Last year, he and a pair of European researchers posited in an article that accurate yearly comparisons can’t be drawn on such an enormous timeline with available scientific techniques, such as collecting temperature data from marine sediments or peat bogs.
Mr Esper pointed out that the scorching summer heat of last year was exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which usually aligns with heated global temperatures. The outcome was longer, harsher heatwaves, and protracted drought occurrences.
Heatwaves have been proven to impact human health significantly, causing over 150,000 fatalities in 43 nations each year from 1990 to 2019, as confirmed in research published in PLOS Medicine on Tuesday. This equates to around 1% of global deaths, a figure on par with fatalities due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
The majority of the heatwave-related deaths, over half, have taken place in densely-populated Asia. However, when the statistics are modified to consider population, Europe has the highest per person rate, with around 655 heat-related deaths annually for every 10 million inhabitants. The most fatalities were noted in Greece, Malta, and Italy within Europe.
Exposure to extreme temperatures can lead to cardiac complications, respiratory distress, or heat stroke. – Reuters
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