According to NASA’s GISS, never before has the planet recorded twelve consecutive months of record-high temperatures. This is indicative of the worsening climate crisis driven by human activities, especially the emission of greenhouse gases.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized the gravity of the situation: Communities are facing extreme heat in numbers the world has never seen. “It’s clear we are facing a climate crisis,” he said, adding that the need for protective measures will only continue to increase.
The global temperature averaged 2.34 degrees Fahrenheit 1.30 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century baseline, a record rise on top of a long-term warming line that stretches at least four decades. The warmth from climate patterns, like El Niño, has helped push temperatures to record levels.
Temperature increases are directly related to increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which affect both people and ecosystems worldwide, said Kate Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist. Analysis of the record by NASA scientists is based on data from about 40,000 meteorological stations and oceanic instruments installed all over the world.
NOAA projects the potential arrival of La Niña might partially suppress global temperatures. The bigger trend, however, is that the ocean temperatures keep going up. As Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says, The ocean takes up about 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere, making it one of the drivers that shape Earth’s climate to such a significant degree.
Indeed, it continued setting records of temperatures never seen before from June to December in 2023. July 2023 has been recorded as the hottest month ever. The main causes of such extremely high temperatures were long-term greenhouse gas emissions and the return of El Niño.
According to the head of GISS, Gavin Schmidt, The baseline is continuing to rise due to rising levels of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and methane. He went further to say that this trend will continue, resulting in more record heat waves.
These rising temperatures are further extending to ocean temperatures, which have helped in creating more active hurricane seasons. Further, conditions brought by La Niña lead to weaker westerly winds, hence translating into intense tropical storms.
The World Meteorological Organization, WMO, reported that September 2023 marked the warmest September ever experienced, with outstanding temperature anomalies over most of the world. This kind of prolonged stretch of record temperatures is just a surefire sign of how fast greenhouse gases are changing our climate.
WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said This emerging El Niño event may propel further record-breaking heat, with snowballing impacts on both the environment and society. The WMO is working with scientific partners to understand the additional factors at work in this exceptional warming.
These are the climatic changes for which the whole world is screaming; there is an emergent need for extensive climatic action. The provided data from NASA, NOAA, and other international agencies remind us poignantly of the critical need to address the root causes of global warming and mitigate its impacts on a global scale.