United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sounded an alarm over the release of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report that earth had endured the most sweltering summer in the Northern Hemisphere. WMO and European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service jointly made the announcement Wednesday.
“Earth just had its hottest three months on record,” the head of the United Nations weather agency said. “The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” Guterres said in a statement that coincided with the release of the data, AP News reported. “Our planet has just endured a season of simmering — the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun,” he added.
The period of August has been fierce and dangerous. It was assessed to have been around 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-modern normal. It likewise saw the most elevated worldwide month to month normal ocean surface temperature on record, almost 21C (69.8F), as indicated by WMO. August was additionally the second most sweltering month estimated, behind just July 2023.
The secretary-general of WMO, Petteri Taalas, issued an urgent assessment of the data. “The northern hemisphere just had a summer of extremes — with repeated heatwaves fuelilng devastating wildfires, harming health, disrupting daily lives and wreaking a lasting toll on the environment,” he said.
Taalas added that in the southern side of the equator, in the meantime, the occasional shrinkage of Antarctic Ocean ice was in a real sense out of this world, and the “global sea surface temperature was once again at a new record.”
The oceans of the world that make up more than 70% of the Earth’s surface — were the hottest ever recorded, nearly 21 C (69.8 F), and have set high temperature marks for three back-to-back months, the WMO and Copernicus said.
The WMO referred to the U.K.’s Met office, which has cautioned there is “a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record.”
Copernicus information as of now puts 2023 to be the sultriest year. It is following closely on the heels of 2016, in the temperature record books, however 2023 is nowhere near finished at this point.
Eight months into 2023, up until this point, we are encountering the second hottest year to date, just partially cooler than 2016, and August was assessed to be around 1.5°C hotter than pre-modern levels, Carlo Buontempo, Head of the Copernicus Environmental Change Administration, or ECMWF, said.
“We can still avoid the worst of climate chaos,” said Guterres, adding: “We don’t have a moment to lose.”
Scientists blame the sweltering summer caused by climate change on the burning of coal, oil and natural gas along with the El Nino effect, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide.