Current:Home > MyThe world is about to experience its hottest year yet and may likely surpass 1.5°C of warming, UN warns: "There's no return" -Blueprint Money Mastery
The world is about to experience its hottest year yet and may likely surpass 1.5°C of warming, UN warns: "There's no return"
Ethermac Exchange View
Date:2025-04-10 15:26:19
The deadly heat waves that have gripped nations in recent years are likely about to get much worse. On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization announced that data and models show the planet is on track to have its hottest year ever for at least one of the next five years — and that the planet will likely surpass a major climate change threshold.
The last global heat record was reached in 2016 during El Niño, a climate pattern that naturally occurs every few years when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures warm. After that period, El Niño's counter, La Niña, occurred, allowing ocean surface temperatures to cool. But just days ago, NOAA announced that El Niño is about to make its comeback.
New #StateofClimate update from WMO and @MetOffice:
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) May 17, 2023
66% chance that annual global surface temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of next 5 years
98% likelihood that at least one of next five years will be warmest on
record. pic.twitter.com/30KcRT9Tht
"It's practically sure that we will see the warmest year on record in the coming five years once this La Niña phase is over," Petteri Taalas, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General, said during a U.N. press conference on Wednesday, citing data and modeling from 18 global research centers that indicates a 98% likelihood. He said that the record will be due to a combination of the climate pattern and climate change.
This record will likely come as the world also surpasses a major and daunting milestone.
"There's a 66% chance that we would exceed 1.5 degrees during the coming five years," Taalas said, pointing to global temperatures compared to pre-industrial times. "And there's a 33% probability that we will see the whole coming five years exceeding that threshold."
At that threshold, most areas on land will experience hotter days, with roughly 14% of the planet's population "exposed to severe heatwaves "at least once every five years," according to NASA. The U.N. has also warned that at this amount of global warming, precipitation and droughts will both be more frequent and intense, and that there will be far greater risks related to energy, food and water.
Indonesia, the Amazon and Central America will likely see less rainfall already this year, Taalas said, while Europe, Alaska and northern Siberia are expected to have "above average" rainfall in the summer months over the next five years.
Adam Scaife, who worked on the climate update and works for the U.K. Met Office, told Reuters that this marks "the first time in history that it's more likely than not that we will exceed 1.5C."
One of the most dramatic changes from this is expected to be seen in the Arctic, Taalas said, a region that has already seen more than double the warming the rest of the planet has experienced.
"In the coming five years, the estimation is that Arctic temperatures will be three times the global averages," he said. "...That's going to have big impacts on the ecosystems there."
For Taalas, the most worrisome part of this information is that it indicates "we are still moving in the wrong direction."
"This is demonstrating that climate change is proceeding and once we extract this impact of natural variability caused by El Niño...it's demonstrating that we are again moving in the wrong direction when it comes to increases of temperatures," he said.
Leon Hermanson from the U.K. Meteorological Office said during the press conference that his biggest concern is the impacts related to the increase in temperature.
"Nobody is going to be untouched by these changes that are happening, that have happened. And it's leading already to floods across the world, droughts, big movements of people," he said. "And I think that's what we need to work better to understand in terms of what this report implies for those things."
But if the world does pass 1.5 degrees, Hermanson said, "it's not a reason to give up."
"We need to emit as few as possible of the greenhouse gases," he said. Earlier this year, NOAA issued a report saying that three of the most significant contributors to climate change, emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all had "historically high rates of growth" in 2022 that pushed them into "uncharted levels."
"Any emissions that we manage to cut will reduce the warming and this will reduce these extreme impacts that we've been talking about," Hermanson said.
But regardless of what comes within the next few years, Taalas made one thing clear: "There's no return to the climate that's persisted in the last century. That's a fact."
- In:
- Weather Forecast
- Climate Change
- World Meteorological Organization
- United Nations
- Environment
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
veryGood! (53726)
Related
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- Rep. George Santos is facing a vote on his expulsion from Congress as lawmakers weigh accusations
- Rumer Willis Shares Empowering Message About Avoiding Breastfeeding Shame
- Beaten to death over cat's vet bills: Pennsylvania man arrested for allegedly killing wife
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Georgia-Alabama predictions: Our expert picks for the 2023 SEC championship game
- Russia’s Lavrov faces Western critics at security meeting, walks out after speech
- Eddie Murphy wants ‘Candy Cane Lane’ to put you in the Christmas spirit for years to come
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- Members of global chemical weapons watchdog vote to keep Syria from getting poison gas materials
Ranking
- Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
- Russian missile strikes in eastern Ukraine rip through buildings, kill 2 and bury families in rubble
- Underwater video shows Navy spy plane's tires resting on coral after crashing into Hawaii bay
- Shannen Doherty shares update on stage 4 breast cancer: 'I'm not done with life'
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- Is Taylor Swift’s Song “Sweet Nothing” Really About Joe Alwyn? She Just Offered a Big Hint
- 9 hilarious Christmas tree ornaments made for parents who barely survived 2023
- 11 civilians are killed in an attack by gunmen in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province
Recommendation
Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
Longtime Kentucky lawmaker Kevin Bratcher announces plans to seek a metro council seat in Louisville
Government watchdog launches probe into new FBI headquarters site selection
DeSantis and Newsom will face off in a Fox News event featuring two governors with White House hopes
Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
9 hilarious Christmas tree ornaments made for parents who barely survived 2023
Lionel Messi, Inter Miami announce El Salvador friendly; say 2024 season tickets sold out
Publishing industry heavy-hitters sue Iowa over state’s new school book-banning law