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Fresh evidence of global warming - as politicians question climate action

Fresh evidence of global warming - as politicians question climate action

Sky News19-03-2025

Fresh evidence today has set out how quickly the Earth's climate is changing - in some places so fast it has shocked scientists.
The new report arrives as the UK's long-standing political consensus on tackling climate change fractures - with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch questioning the necessary pace of climate action - and as President Donald Trump seeks to scrap US climate rules.
The new analysis from the United Nations's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) today found that 2024 was the hottest on records going back 175 years.
Each of the last 10 years has been in the top 10 warmest years on record - a trend that is unprecedented, as previously such a time period has always been punctuated by colder years.
"That has never happened before, going back to 1850," said Prof Chris Hewitt, director of climate services at the WMO.
The team were also shocked by the way the final months of 2024 remained hot, even as the natural warming effect of the transient El Nino weather phenomenon subsided.
The fact the "warmth continued for so long" even the world moved to more neutral conditions after El Nino has been "really quite extraordinary" said Dr John Kennedy, lead author of the WMO's State of the Global Climate Report for 2024.
It also found:
Concentrations of carbon dioxide - the key driver of global warming - are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.
Each of the past eight years has smashed new records for heat in the oceans
The 18 lowest levels of sea ice in the Arctic in summer have all been in the past 18 years
Glaciers have lost more ice in the last three years than in any other three-year period on record
The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.
The UK Met Office's Prof Stephen Belcher said the earth is "profoundly ill. Many of the vital signs are sounding alarms".
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the planet is "issuing more distress signals" and urged leaders to "step up" with new national climate plans due this year.
Meanwhile, some leaders are going cold on climate action, with President Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, and Argentina walking away from global talks last year.
However, the UK's climate envoy on Tuesday struck a more optimistic note, saying other countries are still talking about how to go green, not if they should.
China, the world's largest emitter, installed more wind and solar power last year than ever before, and in 2023 as much solar power as the world combined.
But last year's heat drove extreme weather events that forced more people from their homes than in any year since 2008, destroying critical infrastructure, forests, farmland and biodiversity too.
In the United States, Hurricanes Helene and Milton brought damage costing tens of billions of dollars and killed more than 200 people.
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Tropical Cyclone Chido killed at least 100 and inflicted costly damage on Mozambique, Malawi and French island Mayotte. It displaced around 100,000 people in Mozambique.
Bob Ward, from the London School of Economics's climate institute, said: "This analysis shows that even the United States, the richest country in the world, cannot escape these growing impacts... which are causing suffering for increasing numbers of Americans."

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Greenland and Iceland saw record heat in May. What does that mean for the world?
Greenland and Iceland saw record heat in May. What does that mean for the world?

The Independent

time4 hours ago

  • The Independent

Greenland and Iceland saw record heat in May. What does that mean for the world?

Human-caused climate change boosted Iceland and Greenland 's temperatures by several degrees during a record-setting May heat wave, raising concerns about the far-reaching implications melting Arctic ice has for weather around the world, scientists said in an analysis released Wednesday. The Greenland ice sheet melted many times faster than normal during the heat wave, according to the analysis by World Weather Attribution, with at least two communities seeing record temperatures for May. Parts of Iceland saw temperatures more than 10°C (18 °F) above average, and the country set a record for its warmest temperature in May when Egilsstadir Airport hit 26.6°C (79.9 F) on May 15. The findings come as global leaders put more focus on Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, following U.S. President Donald Trump 's comments that he would like to annex the mineral-rich island. Burning fossil fuels for electricity and transportation releases pollutants such as carbon dioxide that cause the planet to warm unnaturally fast. The Arctic is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. Even in today's climate, the occurrence of such a strong heat wave in the region is relatively rare, with a 1% chance of occurring in a year, the analysis said. But without human-caused climate change, such an event would be 'basically impossible,' said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the report's authors. The extreme heat was 40 times more likely compared to the pre-industrial climate. Global impacts from a melting Arctic Otto said this extreme weather event affects the world. As the Greenland ice sheet melts, it releases massive amounts of fresh water into the salty oceans. Scientists say this could slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, an ocean current that circulates water from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and then the Arctic. Such a slowdown could disturb global climate and weather patterns. 'The nature of weather in the Northern Hemisphere is directly tied to what's happening in the Arctic, because that ice floor basically at the bottom of the atmosphere helps determine the weather patterns that we get,' said Waleed Abdalati, who heads an environmental sciences institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. He was not involved in the WWA analysis. The Greenland ice sheet and other ice covering the Arctic can influence where and when wind blows, how much water content the wind has and whether precipitation falls as rain or snow. Most of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet happens in June, July and August. The May heat wave means there will be a longer melting season this year. Melting ice sheets and glaciers also contribute to sea level rise that is threatening to flood coastlines globally and inundate low-lying island nations in the Pacific Ocean. Indigenous communities in Greenland are increasingly encountering dangerous travel conditions as sea ice that was once constantly frozen begins to thaw. Access to traditional hunting locations are lost, and sled dogs can no longer travel the same routes. Thawing permafrost can destabilize buildings and increases the risk of landslides and tsunamis caused by landslides. Greenland dismisses interest from U.S. Greenland was recently thrust onto the global stage with Trump's interest in annexing it. The Arctic island is rich with oil, gas and rare earth minerals, and its proximity to the U.S., Russia and Europe has geopolitical appeal. Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has said Greenland 'will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.' Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, said it is essential that Greenlanders lead decisions about their territory. 'Certainly an important part of this conversation is about climate change and climate impacts,' she said. She was not involved in the WWA analysis. Moon said the climate impacts Greenland is experiencing, particularly the warming global temperatures, stem from well-identified sources such as highly polluting nations and industries. She said actions such as converting to solar or wind energy and switching to transportation that emits less pollution create positive climate impacts for people far away. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at

Drought fears in Europe amid reports May was world's second hottest ever
Drought fears in Europe amid reports May was world's second hottest ever

The Guardian

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  • The Guardian

Drought fears in Europe amid reports May was world's second hottest ever

It has been an exceptionally dry spring in north-western Europe and the second warmest May ever globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Countries across Europe, including the UK, have been hit by drought conditions in recent months, with water shortages feared unless significant rain comes this summer, and crop failures beginning to be reported by farmers. The new Copernicus data shows that May 2025 was the second-warmest May globally, with an average surface air temperature of 15.79C, 0.53C above the 1991-2020 average for May. The month was 1.4C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level. This interrupts a period of 21 months out of 22 where the global average temperature was more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial level. Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said: 'May 2025 breaks an unprecedentedly long sequence of months over 1.5C above pre-industrial. Whilst this may offer a brief respite for the planet, we do expect the 1.5C threshold to be exceeded again in the near future due to the continued warming of the climate system.' The 1.5 degrees is the climate target agreed by the 2015 Paris agreement. The target of 1.5C is measured over a decade or two, so a single year above that level does not mean the target has been missed, but does show the climate emergency continues to intensify. Every year in the past decade has been one of the 10 hottest, in records that go back to 1850. Dry weather has persisted in many parts of the world. In May 2025, much of northern and central Europe as well as southern regions of Russia, Ukraine, and Türkiye were drier than average. Parts of north-western Europe experienced the lowest precipitation and soil moisture levels since at least 1979. In May 2025, it was drier than average in much of north America, in the Horn of Africa and across central Asia, as well as in southern Australia, and much of both southern Africa and South America. May also saw abnormally high sea surface temperatures in the north-eastern Atlantic, reaching the highest ever recorded, according to Copernicus.

Skipton cellist visits Arctic to record sounds of climate change
Skipton cellist visits Arctic to record sounds of climate change

BBC News

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  • BBC News

Skipton cellist visits Arctic to record sounds of climate change

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