Heatwaves, Scorching Spells, Warm Waters: implications of the rising Celsius from Climate Change

Implications of the persistent heat records

Temperature records, Credit, Yahoo Canada

On July 3, the world's average temperature reached a new high, topping 17.01 degrees Celsius for the first time, with scientists saying th scorching spell indicated the highest in any instrumental record dating back to the end of the nineteenth century.

In August 2016,  the global average temperature reached the previous high, getting to 16.92 degrees Celsius, while the average global temperature across the land surface hit 1.29 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 13.8 degrees Celsius.

A year earlier, the largest record margin for an annual global land surface temperature got broken, the average temperature reaching 1.33 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous figure of 2007 and 2010 by 0.25 degrees Celsius, as well as breaking the 1981 record, which in turn toppled the 1980 height by 0.22 degrees Celsius.

The world's average temperature now reaches a new high with increasing frequency, as the 2015, 2016, and 2023 temperatures showed, each of them succe the highest in the instrumental records dating back to the end of the 19th century.

In June, scientists declared the presence of El Nino conditions as being responsible for the soaring heat, meaning additional heat now wells up to the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a plausible declaration, since average sea  surface temperature anomalies rose nearly half degree Celsius above average in February 2023 to almost a full degree above average in June 2023.

Soaring temperatures on land and sea pushed the earth to its hottest period in recorded history in August 2016, when scientists declared that the warm waters caused by the El Nino phenonenon operated in north east of the Pacific Ocean, driving average temperatures for the globe at 0.92 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average, beating the previous warmest August on record the year before at 0.87 degrees Celsius above average.

The El Nino event got blamed too in 2015 for the soaring temperatures recorded on land and sea, and scientists declared that climate change worsened the situation, with carbon dioxide emissions not abating on a world-wide level.

As in the case with 2015, 2016, and 2023, each and every time average world temperatures break new records at this time of the year, scientists declare the El Nino event as the culprit, especially when sea surface air temperatures rise in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, and the phenomenon ends in temperature highs at the instrumental record dating back to the end of the 19th century.

This year, Spain recorded its hottest ever temperatures for April, hitting 38.8 degrees Celsius in Cordoba, while China continues to endure heatwaves in some places above 35 degrees Celsius, with the city of Taroudant in Morocco hitting high temperature figures.

Seven years ago, the world recorded its hottest temperatures as at the time, setting new highs for the third year in a row, as 90 percent of the warming came through the rising greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring that the earth had risen 1.1 degrees Celsius before the industrial revolution, bringing the world close to the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set as a limit at the climate agreement in Paris in December 2015.

Heatwaves and drought led to human losses in 2015, when the world recorded the then highest average temperatures, the product of an especially violent El Nino and greenhouse gas effect from increased increased carbon dioxide emissions, leading to the highest concentration rate then of the gas in the last 800,000 years by 2016.

At each year when the world records the highest average temperatures, nations such as Spain, China, India, and many others experience excrucuating heatwaves, while the world in general reaches perilously close to hitting the 1.5 degrees Celsius set as a target in December 2015, while human losses escalate within an environment of rising carbon dioxide emissions.

Since the El Nino event comes across as a naturally occuring climate pattern, it cannot be prevented, but adaptive social protection programmes for resilience could be implemented

In the case of climate change, a drastic cut in the usage of fossil fuel must be put into place, along with adaptive social protection programmes.

In all cases, adaptive social protection programmes should suffice,  or the earth could experience further highs in average temperatures, to the peril of all living things in the short and long term.

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Indian traditional vegan foods, Credit, FoodsHubb