“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.”

Researchers stated in an annual report on the state of the climate, published today in BioScience. According to the experts, much of the fabric of life on Earth is at risk.

Despite warnings and foreseeable consequences over the past half century, fossil fuel emissions have increased to “a historic record“, they said in the document.

Scientists have highlighted that the three hottest days occurred in July this year and that current policies are driving Earth to peak warming of approximately 2,7 degrees Celsius by 2100.

“Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts (…) We have brought the planet to climate conditions never witnessed by us or our ancestors,” they warned.

The team, led by William Ripple of Oregon State University, identifies the areas where change is needed: energy, pollutants, nature, food, and the economy. Last year also saw record-breaking ocean temperatures, as well as the warmest extra-tropical summer in the Northern Hemisphere in 2000 years.

“Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main drivers of climate change.”

“In 2022, global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes were responsible for about 90% of these emissions,” they argued.

According to Ripple, a large part of the very fabric of life on the planet is in danger: “We are already in the midst of an abrupt climate upheaval that threatens life on Earth in a way never before seen by humans.“Of the 35 vital signs monitored annually by the team, 25 are at record levels.

The report records some “climate disasters", such as the forest fires in Chile that this year killed at least 131 people and destroyed more than 14.000 homes, or the heavy rains in Africa that caused severe flooding, in which hundreds of people died. More than 700.000 people were affected by this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, many regions of Asia experienced “devastating heat waves"In Myanmar (formerly Burma) alone, 1.500 people died from heatstroke. In India, temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius in some areas, and heat-related illnesses caused 60 deaths.

The human population is increasing at a rate of 200.000 people per day, and the number of ruminant animals—hoofed mammals like cattle, sheep, and goats that produce greenhouse gases and are energy-intensive to raise—is increasing at a rate of about 170.000 per day.

This information corroborates the data in the report Planetary Health Check, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published at the end of last month in Science Advances, one of the most famous and respected scientific journals.

According to this report, six of the nine critical indices for survival on the planet have exceeded the limit considered safe and a seventh index shows imminent signs of being breached.