Our planet and its inhabitants have endured a grim time over the past 10 months. According to climate scientists’ latest figures, 2023 will almost certainly prove to have been the hottest year ever recorded. Global temperatures are destined to reach 1.43C above those experienced before the Industrial Revolution. The consequences have been striking. Glaciers are disappearing, ice caps melting and deserts spreading at an accelerating rate. On top of these climatic blights, intense rainfall, droughts and wildfires are happening more frequently and violently than have ever been experienced, with disturbing consequences.
Around 2 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population, endured at least five consecutive days of extreme heat in 2023, an unprecedented level of meteorological misery that claimed thousands of lives. And forecasters say there is more to come. Next year, temperatures are likely to rise even further thanks to El Niño, a periodic appearance of sea-surface warming in the Pacific, which heats the atmosphere across the planet.
