European Union scientists have declared that this year is on track to become the warmest in the last 125,000 years, with October recently setting a new record as the hottest in that month.
The data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) revealed that last month shattered the previous October temperature record from 2019 by a significant margin, with a 0.4-degree Celsius increase. This extraordinary heat is attributed to ongoing greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and the emergence of the El Nino weather pattern, which heats up the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Globally, October's average surface air temperature was 1.7 degrees Celsius higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900. With this record-breaking October, 2023 is now almost certain to be the warmest year ever recorded, surpassing the previous record set in 2016, which was also an El Nino year.
The dataset from Copernicus extends back to 1940, and when combined with data from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it suggests that this year represents the warmest period in the last 125,000 years. This assessment includes information from sources like ice cores, tree rings, and coral deposits.
Remarkably, September 2023 had previously broken temperature records by a substantial margin, leaving scientists uncertain about whether we are entering a new climate state.
However, consecutive record-breaking months are raising concerns. Climate scientist Michael Mann notes that El Nino years are increasingly becoming record-breakers, amplifying the ongoing human-caused warming trend.
The consequences of climate change are becoming more destructive, with this year witnessing devastating floods in Libya, severe heatwaves in South America, and Canada's worst wildfire season on record. Climate scientists emphasize the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions rapidly over the next decade to slow down the rate of warming and prevent these extreme events from becoming the new norm. Despite ambitious emission reduction targets set by various countries, global CO2 emissions hit a new high in 2022.