In 2024, the world will experience another 41 days of dangerous heat, causing catastrophic disasters that scientists say would be virtually impossible without the climate crisis.
Scientists also say that 26 of the 29 most severe disasters this year have been exacerbated by the climate crisis caused by fossil fuel use.
A new report released last weekend by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central says disasters such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts are a dangerous “new normal” due to rising global temperatures. ”.
“The warming impacts of fossil fuels have never been more clear and devastating than in 2024,” said Friederike Otto, co-founder of WWA and senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London. the doctor said.
“Extreme weather has killed thousands, displaced millions and caused unrelenting suffering. We need to know exactly what we need to do to prevent the situation from getting worse. I know. It’s about stopping fossil fuel burning.”
This year, the world has experienced record heat waves, with July 22nd recording the hottest day on record. An additional 41 days of dangerous heat (defined as temperatures in the top 10 percent of the 1991-2020 baseline) exposed millions of people to conditions that threaten human health, especially in vulnerable regions. It was done.
The volunteer team of international scientists who produced the new report compared daily temperatures around the world in 2024 to what would have been expected without the climate crisis.
They found that the climate crisis has caused some regions to experience more than 150 days of extreme heat.
“Heat waves are the deadliest extreme event ever,” Dr. Otto said.
She added that “if we can’t convincingly communicate” that many people are dying, “raising this awareness will be even more difficult.”
This year is expected to surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record, with global average temperatures potentially exceeding pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time.
Reaching this milestone is a dangerous warning that the world is about to breach the safety limits agreed to in the Paris Agreement.
This year, in addition to a heatwave, the world has been hit by many devastating disasters. In Africa, flooding occurred in Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, killing at least 2,000 people and displacing millions.
The report predicts that if global warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius (a scenario that could unfold as early as the 2040s), similar extreme rainfall events will become annual, devastating communities and infrastructure. It warns that this is a possibility.
The Amazon, known as the “lungs of the earth,” is experiencing the most severe drought on record due to climate change, making it 30 times more likely to experience drought. The drought could bring the Amazon closer to an irreversible tipping point, with the forest transitioning to drier conditions, leading to large-scale tree death and the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Further south, Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands, one of the world’s richest ecosystems, endured a historic wildfire season caused by the climate crisis. Scientists have found that the hot, dry and windy conditions that caused the fires have become 40% worse due to global warming.
In the United States, Hurricane Helen hit six states, killing 230 people and becoming one of the worst storms to hit the continental United States in decades.
According to the report, climate change is likely to increase sea temperatures in Helen by a factor of 200 to 500 times, and precipitation has increased by 10%. Just a few weeks later, Hurricane Milton struck the Southeast, and rapid analysis showed that Hurricane Milton was also strengthened by ocean warming.
“Because of climate change, these storms are getting stronger and more destructive,” said Daniel Guilford, a climate scientist at Climate Central. “Anthropogenic ocean warming is increasing hurricane wind speeds, allowing hurricane wind speeds to reach fully high levels on average.”
A new report paints a grim picture for the future, warning that unless fossil fuel emissions are urgently cut, the number of dangerously hot days will continue to rise each year, and the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase. There is.
“Climate change is making daily temperatures increasingly hot enough to threaten human health almost everywhere on Earth,” said Joseph Giguere, a researcher at Climate Central. “Residents in many countries are now exposed to several more weeks of dangerous heat that would be virtually impossible without global warming.”
The report also warns that the effects of the climate crisis are increasingly overshadowing natural weather patterns such as El Niño, which traditionally play a key role in triggering extreme events. The report argues that while El Niño contributed to some of the extreme weather seen in 2024, the climate crisis was the key factor in most cases, such as drought in the Amazon and historic floods in Africa. are.
“This annual report looks like a failed scorecard,” said Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College’s Center for Environmental Policy. “The world is not cutting emissions or preparing for climate change fast enough. The result is record extreme weather events that cause deaths, displacement and loss of livelihoods.”
Scientists are calling on governments to prioritize a rapid transition to renewable energy and scale up efforts to adapt to worsening climate impacts.
Julie Arrighi, program director at the Red Cross Climate Center, said: “This year’s continued catastrophic weather shows that we are not prepared to withstand 1.3 to 1.5 degrees of warming.” ” he said.
“We have the knowledge and technology to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy,” Dr. Otto added. “The solution has been in front of us for years.
“In 2025, countries will not only need to reduce emissions, but also strengthen their preparedness for extreme weather events that are already here.”
