The world experienced record-breaking heat in 2024
The world experienced its hottest year, so far, in 2024. Using figures from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) The Guardian.com concluded “that 2024 was the first calendar year where the average global temperature exceeded 1.5C above its pre-industrial level. The hottest day in recorded history struck on 22 July, with the global average hitting 17.16C.” The C3S is a global weather service establishment of the European Union with its main office in Germany. The Guardian also proclaims that “every year in the past decade has been one of the 10 hottest, in records that go back to 1850,” a clear indication that the world is getting progressively warmer.
The Paris agreement has instructed the nations of the world to work toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere in order to reduce the warming of the planet. The Agreement recommends that the world should seek to prevent the planet from experiencing a temperature rise in excess of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, in order to avoid major climate related disasters. The Paris Agreement contends that humanity’s use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is the major source of greenhouse gas generation, that is warming the planet and it proposes the adoption of the use of renewable forms of energy like solar, wind and hydropower, as alternatives.
The warming of the planet is considered to be the major driving force behind climate change, which is being manifested in the form of heatwaves, floods, wildfires, sea level rise, ocean acidification, loss of nature’s biodiversity, among other things. The 1.5C rise in temperature above pre-industrial levels in 2024 is considered serious but not an overly alarming breach of the Paris Agreement. An alarming breach would have to show some degree of permanence, over a number of years. as indicated by The Guardian.com. The United Nations News, News.un.org, quoted its Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at the time, as saying “individual years pushing past the 1.5C limit do not mean the long term goal is shot, it means we need to fight even harder to get on track. Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025.”
Citing the UN as its source, The Guardian.com claims that “more than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024,” during what it characterized as the “hottest climate human society has ever experienced.” It further claims that in 2024 “soaring temperatures during heatwaves peaked at 49.9C at Carnarvon in Western Australia, 49.7C in the city of Tabas in Iran and 48.5C in a nationwide heatwave in Mali.” 49.9C is equivalent to 121.82 Degrees Fahrenheit. In 2024, Hurricane Helene was one of the most devastating to hit the state of Florida and the Wildfires in California and Canada were some of the most destructive ever. The extraordinary floods that took place in Brazil and Spain in 2024 are also noteworthy. These and more of the destructive 2024 climate events are discussed elsewhere.
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