Alarming Global Warming Rate: 92% of 2023’s Record-Breaking Heat Levels Was Caused by Humans, Calculations Reveal

The planet's rate of global warming saw an all-time high in 2023.

Calculations also revealed that humans accounted for up to 92% of last year's record-shattering heat levels.

extreme temperatures — (Photo: Pixabay / Geralt )

Record-Breaking Heat Levels in 2023

A team comprising 57 scientists from all over the world used methods approved by the United Nations to investigate the underlying mechanisms behind last year's deadly heat burst.

According to the scientists, even with an accelerated warming rate, they could not see any notable acceleration in human-induced climate change beyond heightened fossil fuel burning.

The recorded heat temperatures of last year were so odd that they prompted scientists to debate the underlying mechanisms of such a huge jump and see if global warming could accelerate. They have also been debating if other factors could contribute to the trend.

Piers Forster, the study's lead author and a climate scientist from Leeds University, explains that if one sees the world experiencing or accelerating a huge tipping point, things appear to be not doing that. Things have become hotter and worse in a manner that had been predicted.

Forster and a co-author of the study noted that this could mainly be explained by CO2 buildup due to the increasing usage of fossil fuels.

Last year, the global warming rate reached 0.26 degrees Celsius per decade, which is 0.01 degrees higher than the previous year.

While this is not a grave difference, it makes the warming rate for this year higher than ever.

Scientists noted that this stresses a situation that is even more alarming.

Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist from the University of Wisconsin who did not participate in the study, explained that while climate change action has become a political talking point, the study must serve as a reminder that such action is mainly a choice to save human lives.

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Examining Heat Levels

The researchers also discovered that last year's temperature levels were 1.43 degrees Celsius warmer than the average temperatures for the years 1850 to 1900.

While 92% was found to be accounted for by human-induced climate change, the remaining 8% is largely because of El Nino, which is a temporary and natural warming of the central Pacific that alters global weather.

Since the time that preceded the industrial era, the planet has seen a 1.19-degree-Celsius warming rate over a longer period of a decade.

The report also explained that as coal, natural gas, and oil usage still prevails worldwide, the planet may reach a point in 4.5 years when it can no longer avoid stepping over the globally accepted warming threshold, which is 1.5 degrees Celsius.

This aligns with previous studies that project that the Earth is stuck or committed to at least 1.5 degrees Celsius by the start of 2029 if emissions trajectories stay the same. Forster explained that hitting the 1.5-degree levels may happen years later, though this may not be avoided if all carbon is used.

Going beyond the 1.5 limit would not imply the end of humanity and the world, but it would still be a bad situation. According to earlier U.N. studies, the Earth's ecosystem may see grave changes that are more likely to happen between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of global warming.

These include the loss of animal and plant species, Arctic sea ice, and coral reefs. Even more devastating extreme weather events could also end up killing people.

Sonia Seneviratne, a co-author of the study and head of ETH Zurich's land-climate dynamics, explained that the temperature rise for last year was not just a little jump. It was notably unusual during September.

If acceleration were to happen, things would get worse. Nevertheless, what is happening is already very bad and has grave impacts.

The report also noted that a particular undersea volcano released vast amounts of water vapor that trapped heat in the atmosphere, releasing cooling particles, resulting in both forces canceling each other.