Taking into account all known factors, the planet warmed 0.2 °C more last year than climate scientists expected. More and better data are urgently needed.
We need answers for why 2023 turned out to be the warmest year in possibly the past 100,000 years. And we need them quickly.
Air and sea temperatures, ice shelf thickness etc. going back to fit perfectly with the current models and 2023 going down as a “freak occurrence” is, at least in my opinion, highly unlikely.
But it’s also missing an important point: this is a scientific problem and realizing that we were not able to predict what could potentially happen in just a few years in the future, is worrisome in its own regard.
“Uncharted territory” basically means that scientists confirm it’s anybody’s guess what is going to happen next, since they don’t understand why it’s happening in the first place.
“It could imply that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated.”
Air and sea temperatures, ice shelf thickness etc. going back to fit perfectly with the current models and 2023 going down as a “freak occurrence” is, at least in my opinion, highly unlikely.
But it’s also missing an important point: this is a scientific problem and realizing that we were not able to predict what could potentially happen in just a few years in the future, is worrisome in its own regard.
“Uncharted territory” basically means that scientists confirm it’s anybody’s guess what is going to happen next, since they don’t understand why it’s happening in the first place.
“It could imply that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated.”