Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Centers for Climate Monitoring, and other organizations explain why 2023 was the hottest year on record for our planet since the beginning of temperature records in a paper released by Science Alert.
Even if humanity drastically cuts emissions of chemicals that raise Earth's temperature, experts have cautioned that current record temperatures would continue to worsen.
On the other hand, according to scientists, climate change is a result of human activity and it makes natural weather phenomena stronger, increasing the likelihood of heatwaves spreading throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.
El Nio's effects and their consequences
The return of the Pacific warming phenomenon known as El Nio, which the world also experienced in 2022, is one of the causes of the increase in global temperature this summer, according to analyses by Berkeley Earth.
According to the scientists, the return of the El Nio phenomena accounts for around 81% of the factors that made 2023 the warmest year on record since the thermometer's records began in the middle of the 19th century.
Oceans keep heat
According to a report from the UK's Science Media Centre (The Science Media Centre), the warming of the oceans influences weather patterns on land, causing storms and heatwaves in some areas while causing droughts and heatwaves in others.
According to University of Reading climate science professor Richard Allan, "The hottest atmosphere absorbs moisture and poses it elsewhere, so scientists have highlighted the length and severity of persistent hurricane systems that cause heatwaves and their effects on weather patterns."
"When high pressure areas, stagnant over continents, continue, air drowns and tides, melting clouds, causing intense summer sunshine that dries the soil, heating the ground and air above it, with heatwaves continuing in place for weeks," he continues.
Hannah Kluke, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, responded by stating that "hot air rushing out of Africa now remains in place in Europe, with high pressure conditions stabilizing, meaning that heat in the warm sea, land, and air continues to increase."
Climate change's role
The Government's Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in a different study that "climate change has made deadly heatwaves more frequent and severe in most land areas since the 1950s."
The director of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Climate Institute in France, Robert Foutard, stated that "heatwaves are not a single phenomenon, but many work at the same time, but they are all reinforced by one factor, as high global temperatures make heatwaves longer and more intense, despite being the main driver, climate change is one of the variables that humans can influence by reducing emissions from fossil fuels."
Melissa Lazenby, senior lecturer in climate change at the University of Sussex, commented on the frightening conditions of intense heatwaves: "We are moving from the typical and known natural cycles of the climate to an undiscovered and more extreme territory. We have the ability to lessen our impact on the climate and weather, preventing the occurrence of more intense and protracted heatwaves.
Forecast for the following year
Berkeley Earth issued a warning about the potential impact of the current El Nio phenomena on the Earth's temperature in 2024 in its analysis of the factors that led to this summer's high heat waves.
Although governments might slow down climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the world's nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also warned that heatwaves would become more common and intense.
Comments
Post a Comment