Humanity survived the hottest week in history, but it will get worse

July 3-10 was the hottest week ever recorded on the planet since records began. And meteorologists say the worst is yet to come. The edition told in more detail The Guardian.

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Soaring levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an unusual band of strong winds blowing high over the Atlantic have already caused heatwaves in the US South, Greece, Spain, Italy and many other countries.

Red-level weather warnings have been issued across Europe. Forest fires are raging in Croatia, on the Adriatic coast and in Navarre in Spain. Tourist sites, such as the Acropolis, were closed as the temperature soared to forty degrees Celsius.

The Earth hasn't experienced anything like this since more accurate air temperature measurements began in the 1850s, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

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“We are in uncharted territory and this is disturbing news for the planet,” said Professor Christopher Hewitt, Director of the WMO Climate Watch.

This view was echoed by Karsten Haustein, a research fellow in atmospheric radiation at the University of Leipzig.

“July is likely to be the hottest month on record since the Eemian Interglacial, an interglacial period that ended about 120 years ago,” Haustein said.

In addition to the triggers of the current record heatwaves, the intensifying El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific is beginning to be felt around the world.

El Niño is a periodic climatic event that occurs when the circulation of the equatorial Pacific changes and its temperature rises, causing indirect heatstrokes around the world.

“A typical El Niño temporarily increases average global temperatures by about 0,2°C,” said Geoff Knight, climate variability modeling manager at the Met Office. “This increase is small compared to the 1,2 degrees Celsius we have seen as a result of climate change since the Industrial Revolution, but on top of this human-caused warming, a new global temperature record will likely be set before the end of next year.”

As a result, many scientists are warning that global temperatures could exceed the 1,5 degree Celsius threshold this year or next. It has been set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the upper limit for the increase in global warming. The limit should avoid the passage of the planet through critical meteorological points, which can bring irreversible changes to world weather patterns.

The consequences of a new record heat wave will be deep and dangerous, the scientists add. More than 61 people are estimated to have died as a result of the soaring temperatures that swept through Europe last summer.

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Given the likelihood that this record will be broken this year or next year at the latest, there is a strong possibility that the dismal 2022 death toll will be surpassed in 2023, and Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy are likely suffer even worse consequences.

According to UN Secretary General António Guterres, "climate change is getting out of hand." He warned that if the world persisted in delaying key measures needed to curb fossil fuel emissions, it would lead to a "catastrophic situation".

Many scientists have responded to this alarm with sad resignation. For more than 30 years they have been warning that the continued burning of fossil fuels will cause the heat waves we are now experiencing.

"We shouldn't be surprised at all by high global temperatures," said Professor Richard Betts, a climate scientist at the Met Office and the University of Exeter. “All of this is a stark reminder of what we have known for a long time, and we will continue to see more extremes until we stop accumulating more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

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