The world just experienced its warmest March on record, marking the latest in a 10-month streak where each month set a new temperature record, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
C3S reported in its monthly bulletin that every month from June 2023 to March 2024 was the hottest ever recorded for that period, compared to previous years. Additionally, the 12 months ending in March were the planet's hottest on record, with global average temperatures reaching 1.58°C above the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900.
\"It's the long-term trend with exceptional records that has us very concerned,\" said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess. \"Seeing records like this—month in, month out—really shows us that our climate is changing, is changing rapidly.\"
The C3S dataset, which extends back to 1940, has been cross-checked with other data sources to confirm that last March was indeed the hottest since the pre-industrial era.
Already, 2023 stands as the planet's hottest year on record since 1850. This extreme heat has led to devastating weather events worldwide, including record wildfires in Venezuela's Amazon region and severe droughts in Southern Africa that have destroyed crops and left millions facing hunger.
Marine scientists also warned of a mass coral bleaching event in the Southern Hemisphere, driven by warming waters, which could become the worst in the planet's history.
C3S attributes the exceptional heat primarily to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, with additional contributions from El Niño—a weather pattern that warms the eastern Pacific Ocean. Although El Niño peaked between December and January and is now weakening, potentially easing the heat trend towards the end of the year, March saw the world's average sea surface temperature hit a record high.
\"The main driver of the warming is fossil fuel emissions,\" stated Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute. \"Failure to reduce these emissions will continue to drive the warming of the planet, resulting in more intense droughts, fires, heatwaves and heavy rainfall.\"
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
