Record-Breaking Heat Waves: A New Climate Reality

The European Union's climate change monitoring service confirms that the past northern hemisphere summer was the hottest since records began. The Copernicus Climate Change Service highlights the exacerbation of global warming and its impact. Extreme weather events, driven by fossil fuel emissions and the El Nino phenomenon, will likely intensify if no urgent action is taken.

The world has just experienced its warmest northern hemisphere summer on record, announced the European Union's climate change monitoring service, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), on Friday. This record-setting summer has underscored the intensifying effects of global warming.

According to data from C3S, the boreal summer from June to August surpassed last year's temperatures, becoming the hottest ever recorded. The continued rise in temperatures points to the increasing probability that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record. Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of C3S, emphasized that without substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, extreme weather events will only become more severe.

This summer's altered climate fueled a series of disasters globally. In Sudan, severe flooding affected over 300,000 people, while the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia experienced an ongoing drought. Moreover, Typhoon Gaemi wreaked havoc in the Philippines, Taiwan, and China, resulting in more than 100 fatalities. Scientists attribute these extreme events to human-caused climate change and the El Nino weather phenomenon.

(With inputs from agencies.)