Sweltering heat has reached historic highs recently, with Monday becoming the hottest day on record globally, surpassing a record set the day before. According to the European Climate Change Service, provisional satellite data released by Copernicus showed that Monday was 0.06 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous Sunday.
Climate scientists say the increase in temperatures observed in recent decades is consistent with projections of human-induced global warming, the result of rising greenhouse gas emissions. Current average temperatures have not been this high since before the emergence of agriculture.
Experts say that while it is not possible to say with certainty that Monday was the hottest day during this period, average temperatures have not been this high in about 120,000 years due to human-induced climate change.
The global average temperature recorded on Monday was 17.15 degrees Celsius. Before this new record, the previous year’s record had been broken. An anomaly in the warmer-than-normal Antarctic winter contributed to this unprecedented heat, as did the previous year when the record was set in July.
Scientists believe that without human-caused climate change, it would be much less likely that extreme temperature records would be broken as frequently as in recent years. The magnitude of these heatwaves has become an extraordinary phenomenon, especially considering that they are occurring two years in a row, despite the end of the natural El Niño event that warms the central Pacific Ocean.
Africa has been particularly hard hit by extreme heatwaves, causing droughts in countries such as Morocco, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Temperatures have reached alarming highs, flirting with 50 degrees Celsius.
This alarming trend must be taken seriously, as human health, the environment and biodiversity are seriously threatened by these extreme weather conditions. There is an urgent need to step up action to combat climate change and mitigate its devastating impacts. Only concerted global action can limit the disastrous consequences of these heat records, which demonstrate the urgency of the climate crisis that we must collectively address.