Representational image only. Credit: PTI Photo After another record-breaking year for global temperatures in 2024, pressure is rising on policymakers to step up efforts to curb climate change. The last global scientific consensus on the phenomenon was released in 2021 through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but scientists say evidence shows global warming and its impacts have since been unfolding faster than expected. ADVERTISEMENT Here is some of the latest climate research: CRITICAL POINT The world may already have hit 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) of warming above the average pre-industrial temperature – a critical threshold beyond which it is at risk of irreversible and extreme climate change, scientists say. A group of researchers made the suggestion in a study released in November based on an analysis of 2,000 years of atmospheric gases trapped in Antarctic ice cores. Scientists have typically measured today’s temperatures against a baseline temperature average for 1850-1900. By that measure, the world is now at nearly 1.3 C (2.4 F) of warming. But the new data suggests a longer pre-industrial baseline, based on temperature data spanning the year 13 to 1700, which put warming at 1.49 C in 2023, the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience said. OCEAN CHANGES The warming of the Atlantic could hasten the collapse of a key current system, which scientists warn could already be sputtering. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which transports warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, has helped to keep European winters milder for centuries. Research in 2018 showed that AMOC has weakened by about 15% since 1950, while research published in February 2024 in the journal Science Advances suggested it could be closer to a critical slowdown than previously thought. In addition, with the world in the throes of a fourth […]
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