Scientists verified Thursday that July will be the hottest month in recorded history, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the Earth has entered a “era of global boiling.”
This month, scorching heat exacerbated by global warming has harmed tens of millions of people in Europe, Asia, and North America, combining with fierce wildfires that have burnt Canada and portions of southern Europe.
“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” said Guterres, urging immediate and bold action to cut planet-heating emissions.
“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
With global average temperatures already higher than any comparable period in the first three weeks of July, the World Meteorological Organization and Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) declared that July 2023 is “extremely likely” to be the hottest month on record dating back to the 1940s.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S, said the temperatures were “remarkable,” with an anomaly so large that scientists are convinced the record will be broken before the month is over.
Beyond these official records, he claims that proxy data for climate dating back farther in time — such as tree rings or ice cores — indicate that the temperatures recorded during the period were “unprecedented in our history in the last few thousand years.”
Possibly even longer “on the order of 100,000 years” he said.
Since the late 1800s, global warming of about 1.2 degrees Celsius has made heatwaves hotter, longer, and more frequent, as well as worsening other weather extremes like storms and floods.
‘Existential Threat’
The severe heat and deadly wildfires experienced in regions of the northern hemisphere in July have raised concerns about the impact on health, ecosystems, and economics.
President Joe Biden labeled climate change’s growing temperatures a “existential threat” as broad swaths of the United States faced a record-breaking heatwave.
“I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of climate change anymore,” he said at the White House, where he held a video conference with the mayors of heat-blasted Phoenix, Arizona, and San Antonio, Texas.
Heat, according to Biden, is the “number one weather-related killer” in the United States, inflicting 600 deaths each year. He announced plans to strengthen heat-related safety measures for workers, particularly those working outside.
Authorities in Beijing recommended the elderly to stay home and children to limit outside activities after a four-week string of highs exceeding 35 degrees Celsius.
Wildfires burned in various nations across the Mediterranean region, where excessive heat had dried up landscapes to the point of ignitability.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling devastating blazes that have raged for two weeks across Greece.
Hot Water
According to Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization, worldwide average sea surface temperatures have been well above those previously recorded for the time of year since May, contributing to the unusually warm July.
According to Buontempo, “a significant swath” of the central Mediterranean is now close to or exceeding all prior records.
Meanwhile, bathtub-like temperatures in shallow waters off south Florida topped 37.8 degrees Celsius for many hours on Monday, perhaps setting a new world record and endangering coral reefs.
Despite the cooling effects of the La Nina weather trend, the WMO says the eight years to 2022 were the warmest on record. This has already given way to a warming El Nino, which is not projected to intensify until later in the year.
The United Nations expects that global temperatures will rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the next five years.
They emphasize, however, that this would not constitute a permanent breach of the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C limit for long-term warming.
Scientists say the world will need to adapt to the heat and other impacts already caused by emissions — and that carbon pollution must be slashed dramatically this decade to avoid worse in the future.
“The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,” said World Meteorological Organization’s Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”
This week scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that the heatwaves in parts of Europe and North America would have been almost impossible without climate change.