“Nobody is safe:” Burning of fossil fuels send global temperatures to hottest on record

The past 12 months on earth were the hottest ever recorded, according to a report by Climate Central, a non-profit science research group.

The peer-reviewed report says burning petrol, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels that release planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide, and other human activities, caused the unnatural warming from November 2022 to October 2023.

During the course of the year, 7.3 billion people, or 90 per cent of humanity, endured at least 10 days of high temperatures that were made at least three times more likely because of climate change.

“People know that things are weird, but they don’t they don’t necessarily know why it’s weird. They don’t connect back to the fact that we’re still burning coal, oil and natural gas,” said Andrew Pershing, a climate scientist at Climate Central.

“I think the thing that really came screaming out of the data this year was nobody is safe. Everybody was experiencing unusual climate-driven heat at some point during the year.”

The average global temperature was 1.3C higher than the pre-industrial climate, which scientists say is close to the limit countries agreed not to go over in the Paris Agreement – a 1.5C rise.

The impacts were apparent as one in four humans, or 1.9 billion people, suffered from dangerous heatwaves.

At this point, said Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University, no one should be caught off guard.

“It’s like being on an escalator and being surprised that you’re going up,” he said.

“We know that things are getting warmer, this has been predicted for decades.”

The heat of the last year, intense as it was, is tempered because the oceans have been absorbing the majority of the excess heat related to climate change, but they are reaching their limit, said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University.

“Oceans are really the thermostat of our planet … they are tied to our economy, food sources and coastal infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, the UN says scientists have confirmed that 2023 is set to be the hottest year on record in terms of average global temperatures. Temperatures were on average 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels between November 2022 and October this year.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) this week declared that “as a result of record high land and sea-surface temperatures since June, the year 2023 is now on track to be the warmest year on record”. The WMO warns that next year may be even warmer, with El Niño expected to last until at least April 2024.

AP/AAP