Last year was the hottest on record — and likely one of the coolest of our lifetimes. On average, 2023 was 1.48 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial Earth, before human-caused emissions began warming the planet, writes Chelsea Harvey. That’s uncomfortably close to 1.5 degrees — the most ambitious target that nations agreed to in the Paris climate agreement eight years ago. The finding comes from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Scientists say it’s “becoming inevitable” that the planet will at least briefly overshoot the Paris target, Chelsea writes. And already, the world is grappling with the consequences. 2023 saw deadly heat waves in cities across the globe. Waters off the Florida Keys briefly became a hot tub, devastating coral reefs. Canada experienced its worst-ever wildfire season. Dozens in China and India died in floods, and thousands died in Libya when dams failed after heavy rains. “The extremes we have observed over the last few months provide a dramatic testimony of how far we now are from the climate in which our civilization developed,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. “This has profound consequences for the Paris Agreement and all human endeavors.” Scientists attribute much of last year’s hot temperatures to decades of human-caused climate change, along with the more transient impact of the planet-warming El Niño weather cycle. 2024 is likely to be even hotter. This year will also bring a presidential election that could shape the future of U.S. climate policy. Polls indicate that President Joe Biden will likely square off against former President Donald Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of Paris Agreement and has vowed to undo Biden’s green policies. Zack Colman writes that European leaders have also faced pushback over recent climate efforts, which could spell trouble for environmentalists in European Parliament elections this June. “It’s a scary time in that there are candidates on ballots across the world who haven’t really understood the full scope of climate risks and opportunities for climate actions,” Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University, told Zack.
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