Climate crisis escalates: July 2023 to witness hottest month in centuries, NASA

Climate crisis escalates: Top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies issued a warning, stating that July 2023 is on track to become the hottest month in centuries.

A relentless heatwave is sweeping across large parts of the world, breaking temperature records and raising concerns about the worsening climate crisis.

As extreme weather events continue to unfold, with devastating floods in New England and Canadian wildfires spreading smoke across cities, the urgency of climate action becomes evident. Tens of millions of people in the US south and west are under heat advisories, emphasizing the need for immediate measures.

During a meeting at NASA’s Washington headquarters, agency climate experts and leaders, including Nasa administrator Bill Nelson and chief scientist Kate Calvin, discussed the unprecedented global changes.

Schmidt pointed out the rising heatwaves in the US, Europe, and China, which have been continuously breaking temperature records. The increasing temperatures do not come as a surprise to scientists, as they have observed a steady rise over the past four decades.

June also recently marked the hottest month on record, fueling concerns about 2023 potentially becoming the hottest year overall. Schmidt estimated a 50% chance of this occurrence, while other models suggested it could be as high as 80%.

The experts stressed the direct link between these extreme changes and greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the urgent need for climate preparedness as the impacts of climate change affect people and ecosystems worldwide.

Looking ahead to 2024, Schmidt’s projections are even more alarming. He predicts that an El Niño weather pattern, known to elevate global temperatures, will likely peak toward the end of 2023, making 2024 even hotter.

The last major El Niño event from 2014 to 2016 resulted in successive years breaking global temperature records, with 2016 becoming the hottest year ever recorded.

In response to the escalating climate crisis, NASA is focusing on several climate-related initiatives, such as the Earth Information Center, providing real-time climate data from satellites.

The agency aims to assist governments in mitigating the crisis and preparing for its effects through projects that track environmental changes and research lower-carbon forms of air travel.

However, despite the urgent warning, some rightwing lawmakers are attempting to reduce funding for climate-related projects, including those at NASA.

Karen St Germain, the agency’s earth science division director, stressed that the objective is not only scientific discovery but also enhancing climate preparedness and benefiting people worldwide through new research.

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