The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, with some of the consequences being irreversible over hundreds if not thousands of years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which also underlined the massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather.
WMO's State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.
WMO's flagship report showed that:
- Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.
- Globally each of the past ten years were individually the ten warmest years on record.
- Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat content.
- The 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents on record were all in the past 18 years.
- The three lowest Antarctic ice extents were in the past three years.
- The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years.
- The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
