The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Tuesday that every significant global climate record was broken in 2017 and that 2024 may be even worse.
The organization’s director expressed particular alarm about ocean temperatures and declining sea ice.
Record-High Ocean Temperatures Threaten Global Food Chains
The average temperature reached 1.45 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, the highest level in 174 years of record keeping, according to the UN weather agency’s annual State of the Global Climate report.
According to the WMO, ocean temperatures hit their highest point in 65 years, with over 90% of the world’s waters experiencing heatwave conditions at some point in the year. This negatively impacted food chains.
“The world is hearing the Red Alert from the WMO community,” stated Celeste Saulo, the organization’s Secretary-General, who assumed the position in January.
“What we witnessed in 2023, especially with the unprecedented ocean warmth, glacier retreat and Antarctic sea ice loss, is cause for particular concern.”
Later, she told reporters that the heat in the ocean was almost irreversible, meaning it might take millennia to reverse, and that was why it was so worrying.
“The trend is really very worrying and that is because of the characteristics of water that keep heat content for longer than the atmosphere,” she stated.
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WMO Warns of Record Heat Levels Amid El Niño and Climate Change
In 2023, the world reached record levels due to a combination of natural El Nino climate patterns and climate change caused by the use of fossil fuels. Omar Baddour, chief of WMO’s climate monitoring division, told reporters that there was a “high probability” that 2024 would break heat records because the year following an El Nino is usually still warmer.
According to the study released on Tuesday, there has been a significant decrease in Antarctic sea ice, with the peak level recorded at a distance of one million km2, or almost the same as Egypt, below the previous record.
It stated that over the previous ten years, the rate of sea-level rise has more than doubled compared to the 1993–2002 period due to this trend and ocean warming, which causes water to expand.
Ocean heat was concentrated in the North Atlantic in late 2023, with average temperatures 3 degrees Celsius above usual.
Delicate marine ecosystems are impacted by warmer ocean temperatures, and many fish species have moved north from this region in search of colder climates.
The Argentine meteorologist Saulo expressed her hope that the report will increase awareness of the “essential need to scale up the urgency and ambition of climate action.” Saulo has committed to strengthening global warning systems for climate disasters.
“That’s why we spoke about the Red Alert because we must care for the people and how they will suffer from these more frequent, more extreme events,” she stated to reporters. “If we do nothing, things will become worse and that will be our responsibility.”
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