World temperatures surpass dangerous threshold for first time

According to CNN , the Earth's temperature has at times risen above the important threshold of 2 degrees Celsius. This is a threshold that scientists have warned for decades could cause catastrophic and irreversible impacts on the planet and ecosystems.

For the first time, the average global temperature on November 17, 2023 was 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times - according to preliminary data shared on social network X by Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the European Climate Change Service Copernicus.

The threshold has only been crossed temporarily and does not mean the world is on course for permanent warming above 2 degrees Celsius, but it is a warning of a planet that is getting hotter and moving towards a more permanent state where the effects of the climate crisis are in some cases irreversible.

“According to our calculations, this was the first day that global temperatures were more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), at 2.06 degrees Celsius,” Burgess wrote.

Burgess said in her post that global temperatures on November 17, 2023, were on average 1.17 degrees higher than the 1991-2020 average, making it the warmest November 17 on record. But compared to pre-industrial times, before humans began burning fossil fuels on a large scale and altering the Earth’s natural climate, temperatures were 2.06 degrees Celsius warmer.

The 2C milestone comes two weeks before the start of the United Nations COP28 climate conference in Dubai, where countries will assess their progress towards the Paris Climate Agreement pledge to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels, with the ambition to limit it to 1.5C.

A single day above 2C does not mean the Paris Agreement has been breached, “but it does highlight how we are approaching internationally agreed limits,” Ms Burgess said.

Copernicus' data is preliminary and will take weeks to be confirmed by actual observations.

The world appears to be on track to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius of sustained warming in the next few years, a threshold beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.

A United Nations report released shows that even if countries fulfill their current emissions reduction commitments, the world will warm by 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

But 1.5C is not the limit for Earth – if it warms beyond that, the effects will be even worse. Warming to 2C puts more people at risk of deadly extreme weather and increases the likelihood of the planet reaching irreversible tipping points, such as the collapse of polar ice sheets and the mass death of coral reefs.

Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading in the UK, called the 2C figure “a canary in the coal mine” and “underscores the urgency of tackling greenhouse gas emissions”.

The data comes on the heels of the hottest 12 months on record and a year of extreme weather events, exacerbated by the climate crisis, including fires in Hawaii, floods in North Africa and storms in the Mediterranean, all of which claimed many lives.

Minh Hoa (according to Lao Dong newspaper, Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper)

Source