Planet Earth 1.64C Hotter Than in Preindustrial Times: Report. Scorching heat has exposed more people around the world to violent heat in recent years as temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 were the highest on record. Scientists say this created a year-long stretch in which the Earth was 1.64C hotter than in the preindustrial times.
Copernicus Climate Change Service, a scientific organization that tracks key climate metrics, highlighted May 2024 as the warmest month on record. It stated that the global average temperature for May 2024 was 0.65°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.52°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. As such, scientists say the global average temperature for the last 12 months, that is from June 2023 to May 2024, is the highest on record.
Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, says the report shows a large and continuing shift in the climate. He believes we will see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm.
Buontempo said this is inevitable unless mankind stops adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the oceans. He highlighted that the record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, but the overall signature of climate change remains. The expert sees no sign of a change in such a trend.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there is an 80 percent likelihood of at least one year between 2024 and 2028 temporarily exceeding 1.5°C, and a 47 percent likelihood that the global temperature averaged over the entire 2024-2028 five-year period will surpass 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era.
He highlighted that every calendar turned up the heat – mankind is shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind.
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Aditi Mukherji, a director at research institute CGIAR and co-author of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, said at 1.5C, the world witnessed some of the hottest extremes in 2024.
She compare the extreme heat to a mild fever, describing 1.5C as a medium-to-high grade fever. Mukherji highlighted a human body with that temperature for years, saying that’s our current Earth system – crisis.
