January is the warmest on record, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports. Climate experts are sounding the alarm.
With an average of 13.14 degrees Celsius, the air temperature on the Earth’s surface was 0.7 degrees higher than the average over the reference period from 1991 to 2020 and 0.12 degrees higher than the highest January temperature so far in 2020.
Climate researcher Helga Kromp-Kolb knows what this means for our plants: “Large parts of nature do not feel individual record values in winter, but they do notice them strongly in summer. But for plants that have been misled by warm weather and are now sprouting, a subsequent frost could be fatal.” Other consequences of high temperatures are the melting of glaciers and the thawing of permafrost.
The weather phenomenon El Niño makes us warm
The reason for the higher temperatures is the weather phenomenon El Niño. It begins to weaken in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Air temperatures over the sea remain at unusually high levels. This happens every few years.
But what does our future look like? “We urgently need to work on an idea of what a good life for all, without greenhouse gas emissions, could look like in 2040. When we have a common, valuable purpose, we can overcome the fear-driven blocks to transformation.”
Source: Krone
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