Earth’s climate has ‘entered uncharted territory’ and it’s not good news

As a warming Earth moves into worrying new territory this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperatures are a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. Are. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us that something is seriously wrong, he said.

“Heat drives our climate in many ways… It’s not just the heat,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University. Dying coral reefs, more intense nor’easters and smoke from the wildfires that have engulfed much of North America this summer are among many other signs of a climate crisis.

“The increasing warming of our planet due to fossil fuel use is not unexpected, but it is dangerous for us humans and the ecosystems we depend on. We need to stop this fast,” said Stefan Rahmstorff of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Some other recent “firsts” and events that indicate climate change has entered uncharted territory:

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ocean warming

Much of the planet is covered by oceans, which have absorbed 90% of recent warming due to planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. In April, global ocean temperatures rose to 69.98 °F (21.1 °C), attributed to a combination of greenhouse gas emissions and early El Niño formation. Newly published data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service has documented “extraordinarily warm” ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic, with “extreme” marine heat waves near Ireland, the UK and the Baltic Sea.

wildfire smoke

Several rounds of wildfire smoke rising from northern Canada brought hazardous air quality levels to eastern North America. High levels of wildfire smoke have become familiar on the West Coast, but climate change will make wildfires and smoke more likely and more frequent on the East Coast, scientists say.

El Nino comes soon

The current El Niño – a period of warming Pacific Ocean waters – formed a month or two earlier than normal, replacing La Niña, which acted as a constraint on global temperatures as Pacific waters cooled. This means that it will take longer than usual to get stronger. The World Meteorological Organization estimates there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record, surpassing 2016 when an exceptionally strong El Niño was present.

Shrinking Antarctic sea ice

Scientists are watching Antarctic sea ice shrink to a record level. According to National Snow, the 4.5 million square miles (11.7 million square kilometers) covered by the sheet on June 27 were about 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) less than the average for that date for the 1981–2010 period. Ice Data Center. Put another way, an area about four times the size of Texas disappeared from the ice sheet.