Global temperatures hit record high as scientists warn of accelerating climate crisis

Data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service released Thursday showed the average global air temperature last month measured 16.96° Celsius (62.53° F), the highest monthly global average ever recorded.

"Humans haven't seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100,000 years," Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees Copernicus, told AFP.

Copernicus data, which goes back to 1940, recorded the previous all-time monthly high only three years ago in July 2023.

Western Europe records hottest summer

Western Europe recorded its hottest summer on record this year after successive heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

Between mid-July and mid-August, Europe saw more than 32,000 excess deaths related to heat, according to estimates from the EuroMomo monitoring platform.

Additionally, ocean temperatures also tied their record high, which extended a three-month streak of record-breaking warmth across the world's oceans.

These warm ocean temperatures come at severe cost to marine life, reefs and coastal communities.

Added to this, what is estimated to be the strongest El Nino in the modern era is set to bring unusually warm Pacific waters, raising the odds of extreme weather across the world, from floods to droughts and wildfires.

Scientists point to climate change

Scientists primarily attributed the extreme heat primarily to human-caused climate change.

"The evidence is irrefutable: this is the spiraling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction, and the global climate crisis it is fueling," United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said in response to the Copernicus report.

Stiell said "until humanity stops burning" coal, oil and gas, extreme heat would continue to break records.

Long-term warming currently averages at about 1.4°C higher than pre-industrial levels, just under the 1.5°C limit envisioned under the Paris Agreement.

Last week, the UN said the 1.5°C goal was no longer achievable and urged faster greenhouse gas cuts.

"It is now time to stop acting surprised that our warming planet keeps getting warmer. This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago," Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler told the Associated Press.

"The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we're going to do anything about it or just stand there while the climate train runs us over."

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Edited by: Wesley Rahn