United Nations: Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, declared that "climate change is out of control" this week as two consecutive days saw world temperature records broken.
“If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates,” the Guardian quoted Guterres as saying about the global temperature records that were broken on Monday and Tuesday.
The average global air temperature was 17.18 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, according to data by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01 degrees recorded the previous day.
Data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer showed that for the seven days ending Wednesday, the daily average temperature was .04 degrees, higher than any week in 44 years of record-keeping.
That metric showed that Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at the record high of 17.18 degrees.
But the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday that it could not validate the Reanalyzer data, reports the Guardian.
“We recognise that we are in a warm period due to climate change, and combined with El Nino and hot summer conditions, we’re seeing record warm surface temperatures being recorded at many locations across the globe,” the NOAA said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the UN confirmed the return of El Nino.
The last major El Nino was in 2016, which remains the hottest year on record.
Various parts of the world have been experiencing heatwaves and on Thursday the EU’s climate monitoring service said the world had experienced its hottest June on record last month, the Guardian reported.
The southern US has been sweltering under an intense heat dome in recent weeks, including on the national 4 July holiday on Tuesday.
In parts of China, a scorching heat wave has continued, with temperatures reaching above 35 degrees.
With inputs from IANS