This year’s northern hemisphere summer saw the highest global temperatures on record, beating last year’s high and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever recorded, the EU’s climate monitor said yesterday.
The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service followed a season of heat waves around the world that scientists said were intensified by human-driven climate change.
Extreme weather struck around the globe — with about 1,300 dead during extreme heat at the hajj in Mecca, intense heat testing India’s economy and electricity system, and wildfires raging in parts of the western US.
Photo: EU / Copernicus Sentinel-2 via Reuters
“During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record,” Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said in a report. “This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record.”
The average global temperature at the Earth’s surface was 16.82°C last month, according to Copernicus, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.
That saw the global temperature break through the level of 1.5°C above the preindustrial average — a key threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change.
Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, raising the likelihood and intensity of climate disasters such as droughts, fires and floods.
Heat was exacerbated last year and early this year by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Nino, although Copernicus scientist Julien Nicolas said its effects were not as strong as they sometimes are.
Meanwhile, the contrary cyclical cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, has not yet started, he said.
A study published last month estimated that 30,000 to 65,000 people in Europe died from heat-related illnesses last year.
Against the global trend, regions such as Alaska, the eastern US, parts of South America, Pakistan and the Sahel desert zone in northern Africa had lower than average temperatures last month, the report said.
However, other regions such as Australia — where it was winter — Japan and Spain experienced record warmth.
China logged its hottest August in more than six decades last month, its national weather service said, after the nation endured a summer of extreme weather and heat waves across much of its north and west.
China is the leading emitter of greenhouse gases, but with Beijing installing renewable capacity at record speed, and a construction slump dragging down emissions-heavy steel production, there are signs the nation could hit its peak early, experts say.
“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Burgess said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS