“Climate breakdown has begun”, the United Nations chief has warned as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that the world went through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer on record. According to international media reports, the WMO, citing data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said on Wednesday that August was the hottest month on record “by a large margin” and the second hottest ever month after July 2023. August is estimated to have been about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-industrial average. It also saw the highest global monthly average sea surface temperature on record, nearly 21C (69.8F). “The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement after the report’s release. According to C3S, so far, 2023 is the second hottest year on record behind 2016. As per reports, scientists blame ever-warming human-caused climate change on the burning of coal, oil and natural gas with an extra push from a natural phenomenon El Nino, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide. Usually, an El Nino, which started earlier this year, adds extra heat to global temperatures but more so in its second year. According to reports, “What we are observing, not only new extremes but the persistence of these record-breaking conditions, and the impacts these have on both people and planet, are a clear consequence of the warming of the climate system,” C3S’s Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said.
UN warns of ‘climate breakdown’ after record heat
