These Global Record Temperatures Are More Worrying Than You Think
We are passing a terrifying threshold.
We are in “truly uncharted territory”. That isn’t my words, but that of Copernicus Climate Change Service director Carlo Buontempo. He’s not wrong, either. Global temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 were the highest on record, with global average temperatures during that period 1.64 degrees Celsius hotter than in pre-industrial times. Last Sunday and Monday consecutively broke the hottest average global daily temperature record. We have never experienced a world this hot. But more than that, we are starting to pass climate thresholds of no return, and no one seems to be talking about it.
Let’s nip something in the bud right away. Rising global temperatures is caused by human emissions. There is a practical 100% scientific consensus linking the two. What’s more, while global temperature records like this are not indicative of a warming climate by themselves, as they can be anomalous events, these climate records are part of a multi-decade upward trend.
For example, look at the graph below. While 2024 has plainly been the warmest year recorded, it is obviously not an anomaly. This context heavily suggests these record temperatures aren’t due to some freak event but a predictable and rapid trend in our climate.
