2023 The Warmest Year in at Least 100,000 Years

The record heat that continues to occur demands immediate steps to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Tahun 2023 Terpanas Setidaknya dalam 100.000 Tahun Terakhir

KOMPAS/ADRYAN YOGA PARAMADWYA

Motor vehicles passing by during a drizzle in the area of North Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday (27/12/2023). Extreme weather conditions, especially heavy rain, should be cautioned by the public during the Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024 period.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The year 2023 will be the hottest ever recorded in history with an average increase in the Earth's surface temperature approaching the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold above pre-Industrial levels.

Last year also recorded another bad record, that is for two days in November, the temperature exceeded the pre-Industry standard of more than 2 degrees Celsius.

The hottest temperature record in 2023 was reported by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)-EU, as reported by the news agency AFP on Wednesday (10/1/2024). The report also noted that for nearly half a year, the Earth's surface temperature has exceeded the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Climate change worsens heat waves, droughts, and forest fires all over the world, as well as pushing the global average temperature 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial standards.

Also read: 2024 will be hotter

"This is also the first year with daily temperatures 1 degree warmer than the pre-Industrial period," said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Head of the Climate Change Service C3S.

KOMPAS/FAKHRI FADLURROHMAN

Residents used umbrellas while walking in the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout area, Jakarta, on Monday (10/9/2023).

According to Burgess, reliable weather records date back to 1850, but older climate change proxy data obtained from tree rings, ice cores, and sediments show that temperatures in 2023 exceeded those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years.

Throughout the year 2023, temperature records were broken on every continent. In Europe, 2023 was the second hottest year on record with a temperature 0.17 degrees Celsius cooler than in 2020.

In 2023, it will also mark the beginning of the natural weather phenomenon of El Nino, which warms up the waters in the southern Pacific and triggers hotter weather outside of it.

Also read: Summer 2023 will be the hottest in history

This phenomenon is predicted to reach its peak in 2024 and is related to the record for the highest temperature for eight consecutive months from June to December. The global sea temperatures are also consistently high, with many seasonal records being broken since April.

Also read: 2024 will be hotter

Soaring CO₂ and methane

The unprecedented sea temperature has caused heat waves in the ocean, damaging aquatic life and intensifying storms. The ocean absorbs more than 90 percent of the excess heat caused by human activity and plays a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate.

KOMPAS/ADRYAN YOGA PARAMADWYA

A group of motorcyclists wearing raincoats drive through the Tanjung Barat area in South Jakarta on Thursday (23/11/2023). Jakarta is currently transitioning from the dry season to the rainy season, also known as pancaroba. The public should be cautious because the pancaroba period has the potential to cause extreme weather conditions, such as heavy rain accompanied by lightning and strong winds.

The rising temperature also accelerates the melting of the ice-covered back hills that help prevent large glaciers in Greenland and West Antarctica from slipping into the sea and raising sea levels.

"The extreme phenomena we observed over the past few months provide a dramatic testimony to how far we are now from the climate in which our civilization developed," said Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S.

In 2023, the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane reached record highs, at 419 parts per million and 1,902 parts per billion, respectively.

Methane is the second largest contributor to global warming after CO₂ and is responsible for about 30 percent of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Impact of warming

In response to this report, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) Antonio Guterres stated that this year is just a glimpse of the future disaster that awaits us if we do not take action now.

The extreme phenomena we have observed over the past few months provide a dramatic testimony to just how far we have deviated from the climate in which our civilization thrived.

The heat in 2023 has had a significant impact on life. In that year, the largest fire in history occurred in Canada, as well as extreme droughts in the Horn of Africa or the Middle East.

KOMPAS/M PASCHALIA JUDITH J

Imam (44), a farmer from Ranjeng Village, Losarang District, Indramayu, West Java, has delayed planting rice due to drought. When approached at his home on Tuesday (14/11/2023), he recounted experiencing crop failure in August 2023. His efforts to plant with a capital of around Rp 20 million for a 1 hectare field resulted in losses.

In addition, there has also been an unprecedented heatwave in Europe, the United States, and China, as well as record-breaking warm temperatures in winter in Australia and South America.

"Events like this will continue to worsen until we switch from fossil fuels and achieve zero emissions," said climate change professor at the University of Reading, Ed Hawkins. "We will continue to suffer as a result of our current sluggishness from generation to generation."

Also read: Hottest Week on Earth, Heat Wave, Widespread Floods

This Copernican finding emerged one month after the climate agreement was reached at COP28 in Dubai, which called for a gradual transition from fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change.

“We urgently need to rapidly reduce our use of fossil fuels and achieve net zero to preserve the liveable climate we all rely on,” said John Marsham, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Leeds.