Our planet experiences the hottest week ever recorded
While climate change may not be obvious in daily situations, humans have gotten one step closer to serious consequences of climate change as the planet saw its hottest week ever recorded. On July 3, the average global temperature reached 17.01° Celsius (62.62° Fahrenheit), the highest recorded by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, which dates back to 1979. On July 4, the temperature went even higher, recording 17.18° Celsius.
As a consequence, a number of nations across the world, including the US, Greece, Italy, Spain, India and China, have been experiencing a massive heat wave. This means more than hot afternoons; it warns of severe drought resulting in wildfire and crop failure and highlights an urgent need to cut down the release of carbon dioxide.
Underneath these drastic changes to our planet lies the increasing temperature of the ocean, which has already been happening for decades. In April, the average surface temperature of the ocean reached 21.1° Celsius, the highest to be recorded. In the Northern Atlantic, the temperature exceeded 4° Celsius above the normal line.
Within this context, rising to the public’s new concern is El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a natural climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean that accompanies high sea-surface temperatures and atmospheric changes. Typically occurring every two to seven years, ENSO is associated with rainfall, severe drought, hurricane and climate warming. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is approximately 90% chance of ENSO to continue during the second half of 2023.
Prior to 2023, the highest average global temperature was observed in 2016 under the influence of ENSO, and WMO states that the effect of ENSO will be most obvious in 2024. Only a few weeks into summer, there have been multiple heat records broken in 2023. Experts claim that along with other environmental and human-caused factors, such as increasing greenhouse emissions, ENSO will contribute to many more record-breaking events to come.
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