Earth Records Hottest Year in 2024, Surpasses Critical Climate Threshold
Earth has experienced its hottest recorded year in 2024, with temperatures surpassing the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit established by the Paris Agreement. This increase comes amid significant climate disasters, emphasizing the urgent need for action against climate change, as extreme weather events become increasingly frequent and destructive.
The year 2024 has set a disturbing precedent as Earth recorded its hottest year on record, surpassing critical climate warming thresholds that scientists deem alarming. Four of the six monitoring agencies indicated that the planet exceeded the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement for the first time historically, reflecting the severity of climate change. The ramifications of sustained warming include heightened mortality rates, increased destruction from extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, and accelerated sea-level rise.
This unprecedented heat occurred amidst 27 climate-related disasters in the U.S. alone, causing extreme financial losses and devastating impacts on communities. The global average temperature in 2024 exceeded 2023’s record and reached between 1.46 and 1.62 degrees Celsius, according to different agencies, with the variations stemming from differing ocean temperature measurement methods.
Samantha Burgess from the Copernicus Climate Service highlighted that the rising temperatures are primarily due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases resulting from fossil fuel combustion, which also leads to sea-level rise and the melting of glaciers. With climate change leading to increasingly frequent and severe weather events, it is critical to heed the warning signs represented by these record temperatures and corresponding disasters.
Climate change remains one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, requiring urgent action to mitigate its impacts. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, ideally restricting the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Recent observations, however, indicate that the planet has not only breached the 1.5-degree threshold, but has sustained temperatures above this critical limit for the entirety of 2024, underscoring the growing urgency for comprehensive climate policies.
The alarming rise in global temperatures, evidenced by the unprecedented heat records of 2024, signals an urgent need for effective climate action to prevent further breaches of critical thresholds. With extreme weather events becoming increasingly commonplace, scientists warn that continued warming will lead to dire consequences for ecosystems and human populations alike. The data reflects a precarious situation, emphasizing the importance of immediate global responses to mitigate climate change impacts.
Original Source: www.keranews.org
