New Study Finds Earth Warming at Record Rate
The rate at which Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year's record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated.
The group of 57 scientists from around the world used United Nations-approved methods to examine what's behind last year's deadly burst of heat.
Last year's record temperatures were so unusual that scientists have been debating what's behind the big jump and whether climate change is accelerating. However, the study's authors said even with a faster warming rate they don't see evidence of significant acceleration in human-caused climate change.
The team of authors determined last year was 1.43 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850 to 1900 average with 1.31 degrees of that coming from human activity.
The other 8% of the warming is due mostly to El Niño, the natural and temporary warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide and causes other weather randomness.
The report also said that as the world keeps emitting greenhouse gasses, Earth is likely to reach the point in 4.5 years at which it can no longer avoid crossing the internationally accepted threshold for warming: 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Past UN studies show massive changes to Earth's ecosystem are more likely to kick in between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius of warming, including the eventual loss of the planet's coral reefs, Arctic sea ice, species of plants and animals — along with worse extreme weather events that kill people.
Last year's temperature rise was within the range of what was predicted, but at the upper edge of the range, said study co-author Sonia Seneviratne of ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.
"Acceleration if it were to happen would be even worse, like hitting a global tipping point, it would be probably the worst scenario," Seneviratne said. "But what is happening is already extremely bad and it is having major impacts already now. We are in the middle of a crisis."
