Climate change will result in 41 days of dangerous heat around the world in 2024

Human-induced climate change has caused people around the world to suffer an average of 41 more days of dangerous heat this year, according to a group of scientists. The group of scientists also said climate change will worsen much of the world’s severe weather throughout 2024.

Analysis by researchers at World Weather Attribution and Climate Central shows that heat waves continue around the world, with 2024 likely to be the hottest year on record, and a host of other deadly weather events. was hardly spared, coming at the end of a year in which climate records were broken one after another.

“While this finding is devastating, it is not entirely surprising. Climate change certainly plays a role, often playing a major role in most of the events we study, and heat, heat, and Droughts, tropical cyclones and heavy rains are more likely to occur and more intense “The weather is increasing, lives are being destroyed,” and supporting the livelihoods of millions and often countless numbers of people. Friederike Otto, a climatologist, discovered that scientists. “As long as the world continues to burn fossil fuels, things will only get worse.”

Millions of people have endured stifling heat this year. Northern California and Death Valley are on fire. Scorching temperatures during the day scorched Mexico and Central America. In West Africa, heat is putting already vulnerable children at risk. Soaring temperatures in southern Europe have forced Greece to close its Acropolis. Countries in South and Southeast Asia have been forced to close schools due to the heat. Earth experienced a scorching summer with the hottest days ever measured, barely breaking 13 months of intense heat.

To perform the thermal analysis, a team of volunteer international scientists compared daily temperatures around the world in 2024 to what would be expected in a world without climate change. Although the results have not yet been peer-reviewed, the researchers used peer-reviewed methods.

Due to the effects of climate change, some regions experienced more than 150 days of intense heat.

“The numbers are even higher in the poorest and least developed countries on earth,” said Christina Dahl, vice president of climate science at Climate Central.

To make matters worse, heat-related deaths are often underreported.

“People don’t have to die from heatwaves, but it’s much harder to raise awareness if you can’t convincingly communicate that, in fact, a lot of people are dying.” said Otto. “Heat waves are the deadliest extreme event ever and the extreme event where climate change is truly transformative.”

Scientists said it was a warning that this year the planet is dangerously close to the Paris Agreement’s warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial averages. The Earth is expected to slightly exceed that threshold soon, but it is not thought to have crossed the threshold until the warming has been sustained for several decades.

Researchers took a closer look at 29 extreme weather events this year that killed at least 3,700 people and displaced millions, and found that 26 of them had clear links to climate change.

The El Niño weather pattern, which naturally warms the Pacific Ocean and changes weather around the world, made some of this weather more likely to occur earlier this year. However, researchers said that most studies found that climate change played a larger role than that phenomenon in driving the 2024 event. Researchers say warmer ocean waters and warmer air led to more destructive storms, while temperatures led to more record-breaking rainfall.

Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod, who was not involved in the study, said the science and findings are sound.

“Unless we can reduce the concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, extreme weather events will continue to become more frequent, intense, destructive, costly and deadly,” she said. said.

The United Nations Environment Program said in the fall that burning fossil fuels is releasing more global-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere this year than last, and extreme weather could increase significantly if action is not taken. He said there is.

But Julie Arrighi, program director at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center and a participant in the study, said deaths and damage from extreme weather events are inevitable.

“Countries can reduce these impacts by preparing for and adapting to climate change.The challenges faced by individual countries, institutions and places vary around the world, but every country has a role to play. “There is definitely a role to play,” she said.

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