Earth passes critical climate change threshold in 2024: scientists

NEW YORK -- The final global average temperature calculated for 2024 was not only the hottest year since global temperature records began in 1850, but also the first year to pass a milestone set by world leaders to try to keep the worst impacts of climate change at bay, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said overnight Friday. It was also the warmest year on record in the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Friday. The average annual temperature, 55.5 degrees Fahrenheit, was 3.3 degrees above average. "The announcements are among several being made on Friday, as major climate observation organizations agreed to make annual announcements on the same date, including NOAA, NASA and Berkeley Earth," noted USA Today in its report about the development. "All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850," stated Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus director. The setting of a new record warm temperature for the second year in a row has prompted further pleas from many organizations for more effective and expedient action to try to reign in the warming temperatures, the greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate the warming and the impacts from more intense severe weather events, according to the report. "That includes events like the drought in California that helped to fuel the firestorm in Los Angeles this week and the extreme rainfall that devastated Western North Carolina as Hurricane Helene and its remnants moved through," it added.