Earth broke heat records 12 months straight

"We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell”

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

published 6 June 2024

What happened

The world just experienced a year of record-breaking heat, with average global temperatures surpassing all measurements since 1850 and likely any extended period since the end of the last ice age 125,000 years ago, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said Wednesday.

May was the 12th consecutive month during which "global average temperature reached a record value for the corresponding month," Copernicus said. The stretch is a "stark warning." In a separate study published Wednesday, a group of 57 scientists found that human activity was responsible for 92% of 2023's warming, which increased at a rate "unprecedented in the instrumental record."

While averting catastrophe is "still just about possible," the decisions made by global leaders "especially in the next 18 months" will determine whether the planet can be saved, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a special address. "We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.