Even as many United States were trembling under Figid Conditions Last monthThe planet as a whole had the hottest January, scientists said on Thursday.
The heat came as a surprise for the researchers of the climate. It happened during the conditions of the La Niña in the Pacific, which tend to reduce the average globe temperature, at least temporary.
Earth’s surface now has was so warm So many last two years that scientists have questioned whether anything else in the chemistry of the planets could change, something that increases temperatures outside of what can only be explained by carbon emissions.
These emissions, a by -product of coal combinations, gas and oil, remain the main driver of global warming, which reached a record level of both 2023 and 2024.
Due to La Niña, scientists expected that this year it would be a little colder than the past two years, and both experienced the opposite pattern, El Niño. The waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean oscillate between the conditions of El Niño and La Niña, influencing the weather around the world, changing the balance between the heat in the ocean and the heat in the air.
But a number of other factors enter global temperatures. At this point, the chances are not high that 2025 will be the hottest year on books, said Russell Vose, a climate scientist at the National Ocean and atmosphere Administration. But this time last year, researchers spoke almost the same about 2024, said Dr. Vose. They were wrong.
“So it’s a difficult game, predicting a global temperature,” said Dr. Vose.
According to Copernicus, the European Union Climate Supervisory Agency was much more balmary last month than otherwise in northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia, as well as parts of Australia and Antarctica. Onthelically high temperatures above the Hudson Bay and Labrador Sea helped reduce the Arctic marine ice to a record low for January, Copernicus said.
While scientists are trying to explain an infinite series of world heat, one thing they focused on is a reduction in air pollution.
In a report this weekJames Hansen, a well -known former NASA scientist, claimed that cutting contamination had already played a big role in the cause of accelerating global warming. The reason is a little counter -attack: for decades, people not only emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases when fossil fuel burns. They also threw tiny particles of sulfate in the air.
These particles stimulate the creation of more and brighter clouds, which help protect the soil from the sun. But as regulators have suppressed sulfate pollution to protect the lungs of humans, this cooling effect has decreased, exposing the planet more full of greenhouse warming forces.
Three decades ago Dr. Hansen was among the first scientists attract wide attention to climate change. In an interview with journalists this week, he claimed that the United Nations were poorly prepared to deal with accelerated warming.
The UN approach to fulfilling its climatic goals is still counting on society that in the coming decades it will reduce carbon emissions, he said. These goals now look “impossible” to achieve, Dr. Hansen said, “Unless there is a wonder we don’t understand.”
