According to CNN , Earth's temperature has at times risen above the critical threshold of 2 degrees Celsius. This is a threshold that scientists have warned for decades could cause catastrophic and irreversible impacts on the planet and its ecosystems.
For the first time, the global average temperature on November 17, 2023, was 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels – according to preliminary data shared on social media by Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the European Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Agency.
This threshold has only been temporarily crossed and does not mean the world is in a state of permanent warming above 2 degrees Celsius, but it is a warning of an increasingly hotter planet and a move toward a more long-term situation where the effects of the climate crisis are, in some cases, irreversible.
"According to our calculations, this is the first day that global temperatures have risen more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), at 2.06 degrees Celsius," wrote Ms. Burgess.
Ms. Burgess stated in her post that global temperatures on November 17, 2023, averaged 1.17 degrees higher than the 1991-2020 average, making it the warmest November 17 on record. However, compared to pre-industrial levels, before humans began burning fossil fuels on a large scale and altering the Earth's natural climate, temperatures were already 2.06 degrees Celsius warmer.
The occurrence of the 2°C rise comes two weeks before the start of the United Nations' COP28 climate conference in Dubai, where countries will assess their progress toward their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with the ambition of limiting it to 1.5°C.
Ms. Burgess said that a single day of temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius does not mean the Paris Agreement has been violated, "but underscores how we are approaching the limits that have been internationally agreed upon."
Copernicus's data is preliminary and will take weeks to be confirmed by actual observations.
The world appears to be on track to surpass the 1.5°C warming threshold over the next few years, a threshold beyond which scientists believe humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.
A United Nations report indicates that even if countries fulfill their current emissions reduction commitments, the world will warm by 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by around this century.
But 1.5 degrees Celsius isn't the limit for Earth – if the Earth warms above that, the impact will be even worse. A warming of 2 degrees Celsius puts many people at risk of deadly extreme weather and increases the likelihood of the planet reaching irreversible tipping points, such as the collapse of polar ice sheets and the mass die-off of coral reefs.
Richard Allan, a climate science professor at the University of Reading in England, called the recorded 2°C "a canary in a coal mine" and "understood the urgency of addressing greenhouse gas emissions."
This data comes just after the hottest 12 months on record and after a year of extreme weather events, exacerbated by the climate crisis, including wildfires in Hawaii, floods in North Africa and storms in the Mediterranean, all of which have claimed many lives.
Minh Hoa (compiled from Lao Dong newspaper and Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper)
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