Last summer, marked by deadly extreme heat and devastating wildfires, was the warmest in at least 2,000 years, according to new research, which analyzed weather data and tree rings to reconstruct a detailed picture of the past.The findings offer a stark insight into the “unparalleled” warming the world is experiencing today thanks to humans burning vast amounts of planet-heating fossil fuels, according to the authors of the study published Tuesday in the Journal Nature. And it’s an alarming signal as some scientists warn 2024 is on track to be be even hotter still.Global warming is currently tracked by comparing temperatures to the “pre-industrial era,” before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels, widely defined as the period between 1850 to 1900. Under the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries agreed to restrict global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.Last summer, the world temporarily breached this threshold, according to the report. Using data taken from temperature instruments during this period, the scientists found the Northern Hemisphere summer in 2023 was 2.07 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial period.But observational data from this period is sparse, uncertain and skews warmer. So, for a fuller picture of how the climate varied naturally before the start of the pre-industrial era, the study authors looked much further into the past.To do this, they used detailed sets of tree ring records from thousands of trees across nine regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Scandinavia, but excluding the Tropics which lack good tree data.Trees act as time capsules. The patterns of their rings – affected by sunlight, rainfall and temperature – provide a climate history for each year of their lives, going back centuries or even thousands of years.This complex tree ring data allowed the scientists to reconstruct annual temperatures for Northern Hemisphere summers between the years 1 and 1849 and compare them to last summer’s temperatures.They found the summer of 2023 was warmer than any other summer during this period.It was at least 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the warmest summer during this period, the year 246 – when the Roman Empire …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnLast summer, marked by deadly extreme heat and devastating wildfires, was the warmest in at least 2,000 years, according to new research, which analyzed weather data and tree rings to reconstruct a detailed picture of the past.The findings offer a stark insight into the “unparalleled” warming the world is experiencing today thanks to humans burning vast amounts of planet-heating fossil fuels, according to the authors of the study published Tuesday in the Journal Nature. And it’s an alarming signal as some scientists warn 2024 is on track to be be even hotter still.Global warming is currently tracked by comparing temperatures to the “pre-industrial era,” before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels, widely defined as the period between 1850 to 1900. Under the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries agreed to restrict global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.Last summer, the world temporarily breached this threshold, according to the report. Using data taken from temperature instruments during this period, the scientists found the Northern Hemisphere summer in 2023 was 2.07 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial period.But observational data from this period is sparse, uncertain and skews warmer. So, for a fuller picture of how the climate varied naturally before the start of the pre-industrial era, the study authors looked much further into the past.To do this, they used detailed sets of tree ring records from thousands of trees across nine regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Scandinavia, but excluding the Tropics which lack good tree data.Trees act as time capsules. The patterns of their rings – affected by sunlight, rainfall and temperature – provide a climate history for each year of their lives, going back centuries or even thousands of years.This complex tree ring data allowed the scientists to reconstruct annual temperatures for Northern Hemisphere summers between the years 1 and 1849 and compare them to last summer’s temperatures.They found the summer of 2023 was warmer than any other summer during this period.It was at least 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the warmest summer during this period, the year 246 – when the Roman Empire …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
