Climate experts at the European Union’s Copernicus announced that in recorded history, the earth witnessed the warmest February to date. Earth’s atmosphere is now loaded with greenhouse gas levels that have not been observed in the past two million years.
Since June 2023, every month has set new temperature records for that season. An extreme low in Antarctic sea ice and record-high sea surface temperatures worldwide accentuate the warming trend. Whilst the Pacific Ocean’s natural pattern, the El Niño weather event, is currently amplifying temperatures, human-driven climate change is identified as the primary catalyst of this excessive warmth, according to Copernicus.
A recent report by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlighted that the 2023-24 El Niño weather event, ranking amongst the five most powerful ever recorded, will continue to impact the world’s climate in the approaching months.
According to Prof Celeste Saulo, the WMO’s Secretary General, in addition to contributing to the record-breaking temperatures since June 2023, “heat-trapping greenhouse gases are unquestionably the primary offender.”
The WMO detected the highest carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere for the last two million years, which increased near-record highs over the past year. In February 2024, these warming gases contributed to rising the temperature by around 1.77 degrees compared to the periods before humans began large-scale burning of fossil fuels, surpassing the previous 2016 record by approximately 0.12 degrees.
Imperial College London’s climate scientist, Friederike Otto, asserts a wealth of evidence underscores the reality of our warming climate. She contends that denial of climate change now equates to disputing the Earth’s spherical shape. She further adds that countless data collected from various sources — including weather stations, satellites, ships, and planes — suggest our planet is heating dangerously fast.
Mounting climate emergency indicators — from record heatwaves and unprecedented flooding to accelerated melting — are being painfully captured in videos from around the world, highlighting the growing necessity to act on climate in 2024.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that we have again set a new record, as humans persist in burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas, thereby continuously raising the temperature of our planet. This is a well-established connection. Any belief that we can restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees while continuing to exploit new oil and gas reserves is as logical as asserting that the Earth is flat or acknowledging the existence of Bigfoot.
West Africa was subjected to a series of extreme heatwaves in February, impacting tens of millions, as outlined by Dr Otto. A future publication from World Weather Attribution, a research entity that lists Dr Otto as one of its founders, will examine how climate change augmented the severity and probability of these heatwaves.
According to a recent World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report, the forthcoming months from March to May are expected to experience above-average temperatures across virtually all land regions.
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