A New Era in Global Heat
New York TimesJan 10
Report: February Was Hottest on Record Globally
The Facts
According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), last month was the hottest February on record, as temperatures reached 1.77°C (3.2°F) hotter than "pre-industrial" times. Every month since June 2023 has become the hottest ever for that time of year.
For the 12 months beginning in March 2023, the average global temperature was 1.56°C (2.8°F) warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial era, which is hotter than the Paris Agreement's temperature threshold of 1.5°C.
The Spin
Narrative A
Back-to-back years of record-breaking heat paint a grim picture of the future, but there's still time to reverse course. By reducing CO2 emissions to levels laid out by scientists, the world can prevent even larger swaths of the population from suffering the effects of extreme weather and possibly heal some impacted regions of Earth.
Narrative B
The best approach to climate change is adapting to it. Thousands of years ago, ancient civilizations dealt with droughts through agricultural wisdom passed down organically. The world must fend off the elites' attempts to reap profits from top-down climate change remedies and instead take a cue from the persistence of past generations.
Nerd narrative
There's a 20% chance that there will be a five-year period with an average global temperature greater than 3.6˚C warmer than the 1861-1880 baseline before Jan. 1, 2100, according to the Metaculus prediction community.