March was Earth’s 10th warmest consecutive month on record.
Since June 2023, Earth has been breaking heat records every month. Last month (March 2024) was the 10th consecutive month of record breaking.
Consider that this data was made public by the European observation program Copernicus, which studies the Earth temperatures.
Moreover, the temperature of the air and of the oceans was also historically high. Last month’s average was 14.14 ºC, 0.10 ºC above the previous record, which was registered in 2016.
When it comes to the global sea surface temperature, the average was 21.07 ºC, 1.58 ºC above the base level (the base level is the temperature that was registered at the end of the 19th century, right before the exponential increase of the usage of fossil fuels).
According to scientists, this increase should not be a surprise. They believe it has a lot to do with El Niño, which is a climatic phenomenon that heats up the center of the Pacific and changes global climate patterns. This year’s El Niño was especially strong and led to high temperatures.
However, most climate scientists and activists pin the increase on human action and the consequent gas emissions. According to them, this is the main cause of global warming, and without real change, things will remain the same.
Note that, in 2015, with the Paris Agreement, the global community established the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 ºC, or less above the base level.
