Last month was the 12th hottest June on record worldwide and the 13th consecutive month in which the average temperature reached that record, according to information released by the U.S. Centers for Environmental Information and by European Union Climate Change Monitoring Service (EU).

Scientists say the combination of human-caused climate change and the natural El Niño climate phenomenon has driven temperatures to record levels. Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, estimates a 95% chance that 2024 will surpass 2023 in terms of temperatures.

This data indicates that 2024 could in fact be the hottest year ever recorded since this type of verification began, obviously surpassing 2023 as the hottest year on record.

Furthermore, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), every month since June 2023 has been the warmest in history, compared to the corresponding months in the respective previous years.

Global Impact

The consequences of climate change were visible to the naked eye across the globe in 2024. More than 1.000 people died due to extreme heat during the Hajj pilgrimage last month. Heat-related deaths were also recorded in New Delhi and among tourists in Greece.

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said there is a “high chance” that not only will June be the hottest month, but that 2024 will be the hottest year on record.

The El Niño phenomenon, which warms the surface waters of the eastern Pacific, tends to raise global temperatures. However, this effect has diminished in recent months, with the world now in neutral conditions before cooler La Niña conditions are expected later this year.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change. Despite promises to reduce global warming, countries have not yet collectively managed to reduce these emissions; on the contrary, they have increased them, pushing temperatures to ever-warmer levels.

Global Record for the Month of June

According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Earth broke a new heat record in June for the twelfth year in a row, with June being the hottest June on record globally.

With an average surface air temperature of 16,66°C, 0,67°C above the 30-year average for this month and 0,14°C above the previous record set in June 2023, for the past 13 months, heat records have been surpassed by substantial margins.

“June marks the 13th consecutive month of record global temperatures and the 12th consecutive month to exceed 1,5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.”

“This goes beyond a statistical rarity and highlights a significant and ongoing change in our climate.”

Said C3S director Carlo Buontempo.

This June was 1,57°C warmer than the average June in the pre-industrial period (1850-1900). The global average temperature over the past 13 months was also the warmest on record, 0,76°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1,64°C above the pre-industrial average.

Climate Consequences

The problem isn't that records are being broken monthly, the problem is that they're being broken by very substantial margins in the last 13 months, which makes this terrible for the climate.

Most of this heat comes from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by burning coal, oil, and natural gas, but an overwhelming amount of the heat energy trapped by human-caused climate change goes directly to the ocean, and the oceans take longer to warm and cool.

The natural cycle of El Niños and La Niñas, which warm and cool the central Pacific, alters the global climate and plays a major role in the climate crisis. El Niños tend to increase global temperature records, and the one that formed last year only ended in June of this year.

“Climate change is, at a very fundamental level, irreversible.”

“For the rich, this is an expensive 'inconvenience'; for the poor, it is a constant suffering.”

“In the future, the amount of wealth required to be merely an inconvenience will increase, until most people are suffering severely.”

Said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University.

The impact of high temperatures is clear and evident, even without reaching the 1,5°C threshold established by the Paris Agreement. Extreme weather events, such as floods, storms, droughts, and heat waves, have intensified worldwide.

In June, the heat hit Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Eastern Canada, the Western United States of America and Mexico, Brazil, Northern Siberia, the Middle East, North Africa and West Antarctica hard, and in Pakistan, temperatures exceeded 47°C.

Conclusion

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent and severe, highlighting the urgent need for global action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.

While some – increasingly fewer – scientists remain “optimistic” that conditions may temporarily stabilize, the ongoing warming trend and associated impacts continue to pose a significant challenge to humanity.

One thing is certain, and it's something most people don't want to accept: we've already passed the point of no return, meaning we'll never go back to the way things were before. But if we don't want to head toward extinction, we must do everything we can to prevent this climate crisis from escalating beyond this point. Good luck to all of us with this increasingly unlikely goal.

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