Earth in 'uncharted territory'

LONDON, July 22 (AFP): A series of climate records on temperature, ocean heat, and Antarctic sea ice have alarmed some scientists who say their speed and timing is "unprecedented".
According to the UN, Dangerous heatwaves sweeping Europe could break further records, BBC reports said.
The BBC has reported that it is hard to immediately link these events to climate change because weather - and the Earth's oceans - are so complex.
Studies are under way, but scientists already fear some worst-case scenarios are unfolding.
"I'm not aware of a similar period when all parts of the climate system were in record-breaking or abnormal territory," Thomas Smith, an environmental geographer at London School of Economics, says.
"The Earth is in uncharted territory" now due to global warming from burning fossil fuels, as well as heat from the first El Nio - a warming natural weather system - since 2018, says Imperial College London climate science lecturer Dr Paulo Ceppi.
Here are four climate records broken so far this summer - and what they mean.
The world experienced its hottest day ever recorded in July, breaking the global average temperature record set in 2016.
Multiple line chart showing daily average global air temperature, with a line for each year between 1940 and 2023. The 2023 line reaches 17.06C on 6 July, breaking the previous record from 2016.
Average global temperature topped 17C for the first time, reaching 17.08C on 6 July, according to EU climate monitoring service Copernicus.
Ongoing emissions from burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas are behind the planet's warming trend.
This is exactly what was forecast to happen in a world warmed by more greenhouse gases, says climate scientist Dr Friederike Otto, from Imperial College London. "Humans are 100% behind the upward trend," she says.
"If I'm surprised by anything, it's that we're seeing the records broken in June, so earlier in the year. El Nio normally doesn't really have a global impact until five or six months into the phase," Dr Smith says.
El Nio is the world's most powerful naturally occurring climate fluctuation. It brings warmer water to the surface in the tropical Pacific, pushing warmer air into the atmosphere. It normally increases global air temperatures.
The average global temperature in June this year was 1.47C above the typical June in the pre-industrial period. Humans started pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when the Industrial Revolution started around 1800.
Bar chart showing the global average June temperature for each year between 1850 and 2023, compared with pre-industrial average for June (1850-1900). Since 1934, each year has been warmer than the pre-industrial average, with 2023 breaking last year's record at +1.47C.