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‘World in unchartered territory’

Say scientists as climate-related natural disasters sweeping across globe
AGENCIES
With record-breaking heatwaves stretching across the northern hemisphere and climate-related natural disasters sweeping across the globe, scientists have warned that the world has entered “an uncharted territory” due to accelerating global warming.
This month broke some climate records -- the hottest day on record, the hottest June on record globally, extreme marine heatwaves, record-low Antarctic sea-ice.
Tens of millions of people in the northern hemisphere have been suffering through intense heat this summer as the world appears headed for its hottest July on record.
As temperature records tumble, experts have pointed the finger at climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels, saying global warming is playing a key role in destructive weather.
Already 11 days into its heatwave, Greece’s national weather institute warned reprieve was still days away, setting this up to be the longest hot spell the country has ever seen.
Across the southern United States, about 80 million Americans will swelter in temperatures of 41C and above this weekend, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
July 2023 is on track to be the hottest absolute month -- not only since records began, but also in “hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” leading Nasa climatologist Gavin Schmidt said.
The effects cannot be attributed solely to the El Nino weather pattern, which “has really only just emerged” and isn’t expected to strengthen until later on in the year.
El Nino is associated with the warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Schmidt said the trend of extreme heat was expected to persist, “and the reason why we think that’s going to continue is because we continue to put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere”.
In Europe, Italy put 23 cities on red alert as it reckoned with another day of scorching temperatures yesterday, with no sign of relief from the wave of extreme heat, wildfires and flooding that has wreaked havoc from the United States to China.
The heat wave has hit southern Europe during the peak summer tourist season, breaking records - including in Rome - and bringing warnings about an increased risk of deaths.
In South Korea, heavy rain has pummelled central and southern regions since last week. Fourteen deaths occurred in an underpass in the city of Cheongju, where more than a dozen vehicles were submerged on Saturday when a river levee collapsed. In the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, 22 people died, many from landslides and swirling torrents.
In northern India, flash floods, landslides and accidents related to heavy rainfall have killed more than 100 people since the onset of the monsoon season on June 1, where rainfall is 41 percent above average.
It is hard to immediately link these events to climate change because. 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, told BBC.
“The Earth is in uncharted territory” now due to global warming from burning fossil fuels, as well as heat from the first El Niño - a warming natural weather system - since 2018, says Imperial College London climate science lecturer Dr Paulo Ceppi.
As temperature records tumble, experts have pointed the finger at climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels, saying global warming is playing a key role in destructive weather.