What's happened
Summer 2024 has been recorded as the hottest on Earth, with average temperatures surpassing previous records. The Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that this trend is likely to continue, making 2024 potentially the warmest year on record. Extreme weather events have intensified globally, raising concerns about climate change impacts.
Why it matters
What the papers say
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, summer 2024 was the hottest on record, with average temperatures reaching 16.8°C, slightly surpassing the previous year's record. The Guardian highlights that this trend is largely driven by human-caused climate change, exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon. Meanwhile, the Independent reports on the severe impacts of this heat, including droughts and wildfires in Europe, and extreme heat in Japan, where temperatures soared to record highs. The BBC notes that despite the UK's cooler summer, much of Europe experienced significant heat, indicating a stark contrast in weather patterns across regions. This disparity underscores the complex nature of climate change and its varied impacts globally.
How we got here
The summer of 2024 has seen unprecedented heat, attributed to human-induced climate change and the cyclical El Niño phenomenon. This summer's average temperature reached 16.8°C, surpassing the previous record set in 2023. The ongoing trend of rising temperatures has been linked to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
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More on these topics
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Japan is an island country of East Asia in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It borders the Sea of Japan to the west and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.
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Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe, in all likelihood independently of Aristarchus of Samos, who had formulated
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Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating estimation and other evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago.
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the northwestern coast of the European mainland.
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The Copernicus Climate Change Service is one of the six thematic services provided by the European Union's Copernicus Programme.