DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.N. weather agency said Thursday that 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future.
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The World Meteorological Organization also warned that the average temperature for the year is up some 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times – a mere one-tenth of a degree under a target limit for the end of the century as laid out by the Paris climate accord in 2015.
The WMO secretary-general said the onset earlier this year of El Nino, the weather phenomenon marked by heating in the Pacific Ocean, could tip the average temperature next year over the 1.5-degree (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) target cap set in Paris.
“It’s practically sure that during the coming four years we will hit this 1.5, at least on temporary basis,” Petteri Taalas said in an interview. “And in the next decade we are more or less going to be there on a permanent basis.”
WMO issued the findings for Thursday’s start of the U.N.’s annual climate conference, this year being held in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.
The U.N. agency said the benchmark of key Paris accord goal will be whether the 1.5-degree increase is sustained over a 30-year span – not just a single year – but others say the world needs more clarity on that.
“Clarity on breaching the Paris agreement guard rails will be crucial,” said Richard Betts of Britain’s Met Office, the lead author of a new paper on the issue with University of Exeter published in the journal Nature.
“Without an agreement on what actually will count as exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, we risk distraction and confusion at precisely the time when action to avoid the worst effects of climate change becomes even more urgent,” he added.
WMO’s Taalas said that whatever the case, the world appears on course to blow well past that figure anyway.
“We are heading towards 2.5 to 3 degrees warming and that would mean that we would see massively more negative impacts of climate change,” Taalas said, pointing to glacier loss and sea level rise over “the coming thousands of years.”
The nine years 2015 to 2023 were the warmest on record, WMO said. Its findings for this year run through October, but it says the last two months are not likely to be enough to keep 2023 from being a record-hot year.
Still, there are “some signs of hope” – including a turn toward renewable energies and more electric cars, which help reduce the amount of carbon that is spewed into the atmosphere, trapping heat inside,” Taalas said.
His message for attendee at the U.N climate conference, known as COP28?
“We have to reduce our consumption of coal, oil and natural gas dramatically to be able to limit the warming to the Paris limits,” he said. “Luckily, things are happening. But still, we in the Western countries, in the rich countries, we are still consuming oil, a little bit less coal than in the past, and still natural gas.”
“Reduction of fossil fuel consumption — that’s the key to success.”
So all these elitists celebrities and government officials doomsayers are flying mostly by private jet to Dubai to a climate conference to think of ways to destroy our economies and make our lives worse, if tehy really believed any of the bs they spew the whole thing would be on zoom or an equivalent, and they wouldn’t be buying beach front property. Anyone who believes any of this garbage is a moron.
Like clockwork, Every end of year for the last five years these liars announce that this was the hottest year on record. This global warming hoax is one of the biggest outrages in history.
Just think of all the good we can do for the global temperatures if we allow our taxes to increase even more! Oh wait, we don’t actually have a say in that.
Why does Airforce One still use gasoline? President Biden is an evil man killing the earth.
the sea level rise over “the coming thousands of years”. The farther the problem gets pushed down the road it means that they aren’t willing to face being wrong yet until that final date comes and proves them wrong.
The records go back about 40 years and in some places up to about 140 years a blip in history especially if you. believe the planet is millions of years old.
So we’re all going gaga on 2.5 degrees since before industrial times which is like 150 years by now. You gotta be kidding me!
Here’s what they don’t tell you. It may be true that winters are not as severe as 60 years ago, but summers are not as hot either. This is a natural cyclical trend that from geological evidence has been going on for thousands of years. The influence of fossil fuels that create “greenhouse effect”, which is 99% more water vapor in the atmosphere, is actually an extremely minor but self-limiting process. The very slight increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, with higher humidity levels spurs more photosynthetic plant growth (the Amazon rainforest is flourishing) adding more oxygen to the atmosphere. Before any global catastrophe occurs, the cyclical trend will even out and even reverse. The reputed 97% of scientists screaming about global warming are counterbalanced by one man who knows what he is talking about, Dr. Richard Lindzen.
Great. Throw more money at this hoax! As if anything’s going to make a blasted bit of a difference.
If the left is so concerned about extra CO2 in the air, they should stop expelling all that extra CO2. They need to hold their breath for a good 5 minutes. Put your money where your mouth is!