For those still optimistically clinging to the idea that climate change is simply a grand overreaction by scientists who really enjoy explaining carbon to strangers, the planet has once again served up its inconvenient truth in numeric form. May 2024 has officially become the hottest May on record, which, if you are following the trend, is just the twelfth consecutive month to casually stroll into the record books with scorched footprints.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which spends its time staring pointedly at thermometers and climate models, reported that the average surface air temperature globally was 1.52 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That may not sound like much unless you are a glacier or a polar bear, in which case it is absolutely terrifying.
“It is shocking but not surprising,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director at Copernicus, summoning the weary tone of someone who has had to repeat the same climate warnings louder and louder as temperatures quite literally rise. She added that if current trends continue, 2024 could outpace 2023 as the hottest year since humans began writing things down and occasionally looking up from their devices.
Meanwhile, global sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions also broke records for the fourteenth month in a row, nudging past April’s record as if trying to win a particularly damp and ominous competition. Much of the heat came courtesy of El Niño, the climate pattern that shows up every few years like an overly enthusiastic houseguest, disrupting weather systems and refusing to leave on time.
The climate agency also noted that sea ice in the Antarctic remains desperately below average, perhaps practicing for an eventual disappearance act, while the Arctic fared slightly better, with ice cover that was only mostly bad. The current trend, say scientists, is worrying. This is climate change not in theory but in action, faithfully delivering warmer weather, higher ocean levels and a growing sense of unease to doorstep Earth each month without fail.
If the planet had a thermostat, now might be a good time to check if someone has been sitting on it.