Rise in greenhouse gases made 2018 fourth-hottest year on record
Rising temperatures in Europe and the Arctic, wildfires, flooding and heatwaves are ‘alarming signs’ of climate change
Oslo — Last year was the fourth warmest on record, extending a scorching streak driven by a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Monday. Average world surface air temperatures were 14.7°C in 2018, just 0.2°C off the highest, it said in the first global assessment based on full-year data. This year will also likely be hot, its scientists said. “Dramatic climatic events like the warm and dry summer in large parts of Europe or the increasing temperature around the Arctic regions are alarming signs to all of us,” said Jean-Noël Thépaut, head of Copernicus. Among other extremes in 2018, California and Greece suffered severe wildfires, Kerala in India had the worst flooding since the 1920s and heatwaves struck from Australia to North Africa. Around Antarctica, the extent of sea ice is at a record low at the start of 2019, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Copernicus chief scientist Freja Vamborg said 2019 would also...
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