June was the hottest month ever - Devastating Consequences Worldwide
According to the european Union's Copernicus Climate Change service (C3S), june 2024 will be the warmest june on record as global temperatures continue to break all previous records. Since this month has had abnormally high temperatures for the 13th time in a row, there are worries that 2024 may top 2023 as the hottest year ever recorded. An El Niño weather phenomena combined with human-induced climate change is blamed for the ongoing run of record-breaking temperatures.
Research scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth projects a 95% chance that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the warmest year since records of surdata-face temperatures throughout the world were kept in the middle of the 1800s.
Globally, the effects of this intense heat have been disastrous. A catastrophic heatwave that struck india in june killed hundreds of lives, especially in highly populated metropolitan areas like New Delhi.
Tragic events occurred during the Saudi Arabian haj, with over 1,000 deaths attributable to the extreme heat. Similar heat-related fatalities among travellers were documented in Greece, highlighting how widespread this climatic disaster is.
A climate scientist from the Grantham Institute at Imperial college London, Friederike Otto highlights the pressing need for action, saying, "We can stop burning oil, gas, and coal, but we can't stop El Niño."
This opinion is in line with the scientific consensus that the main cause of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
International pledges to stop global warming have not been met by collaborative efforts to cut emissions. The average global temperature for the 12 months that concluded in june was 1.64 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial norm—the highest recorded for any such time.
Climate experts emphasise that the globe can only stop the worrying trend of rising global temperatures by rapidly and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the world moves from El Niño conditions to the projected cooler La Niña later this year.