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Glaciers melting in the Arctic Ocean off Greenland. Shutterstock/murattellioglu

Last month was hottest September on record globally, EU says

This year has now seen three months of record warmth – January, May and September.

EARTH’S  SURFACE WAS warmer last month than during any September on record, with temperatures since January tracking those of the hottest ever calendar year in 2016, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme said today.

This year has now seen three months of record warmth — January, May and September — with June and April virtually tied for first, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported.

“There is currently little difference between 2020 and 2016 for the year-to-date,” Copernicus senior scientist Freja Vambourg told AFP.

For the 12-month period through September, the planet was nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

That is alarmingly close to the 1.5C threshold for severe impacts detailed in a major 2018 report by the UN’s climate science advisory panel, the IPCC.

The Paris Agreement has enjoined nations to cap global warming at “well below” 2C, and 1.5C if feasible.

So far, Earth has warmed on average by one degree, enough to boost the intensity of deadly heatwaves, droughts and tropical storms made more destructive by rising seas.

Climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels has picked up pace in recent decades.

Nineteen of the 20 last years are the warmest since accurate readings began in the late 19th century.

Since the late 1970s, the global thermometer has crept up 0.2C every decade, according to EU data.

Temperatures in September were “exceptionally high” over northern Siberia, which — along with much of the Arctic Circle — has seen freakishly warm weather for months.

September was brutal in the Middle East, with new high temperatures reported in Turkey, Israel and Jordan.

Fire and ice 

Parts of North Africa and Tibet were also scorching hot, while maximum daytime values reached 49C in Los Angeles County early in the month.

Across California, five of the state’s six biggest wildfires in history were still burning at the end of the month.

“September was warmer by 0.05C than September 2019, the previous warmest September,” the Copernicus report said.

Last month’s global record for heat was all the more remarkable because of the regional cooling effect of a naturally occurring La Nina weather event over the tropical Pacific.

Arctic sea ice, meanwhile, shrank to its second lowest extent last month, slipping below four million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) for only the second time since satellite records began in 1978, according to C3S.

The Arctic ice cap floats on ocean water around the North Pole, and thus does not contribute directly to sea level rise when it melts.

But it does accelerate global warming. Freshly fallen snow reflects 80% of the Sun’s radiative force back into space.

But when that mirror-like surface is replaced by deep blue water, about the same percentage of Earth-heating energy is absorbed instead.

Climate change has also disrupted regional weather patterns, resulting in more sunshine beating down on the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting — and shedding mass into the ocean — more quickly than at any time in the last 12,000 years, according to a study last week.

In 2019, the ice sheet — which holds enough frozen water to lift global oceans seven metres (23 feet) — shed more than half-a-trillion tonnes, roughly equivalent to three million tonnes of water every day, or six Olympic pools every second.

© AFP 2020

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    Mute Quiet Goer
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    Mar 15th 2019, 7:44 AM

    The whole “we can have nukes but you cant” attitude by the US must make it nigh on impossible to achieve anything with these talks

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    Mute Stephen O'Donoghue
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    Mar 15th 2019, 7:53 AM

    @Quiet Goer: That’s the way it should be.

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    Mute Colm Ó hAodhagáin
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    Mar 15th 2019, 8:06 AM

    @Stephen O’Donoghue: ?

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Mar 15th 2019, 8:23 AM

    @Stephen O’Donoghue: the US are quick enough to arm who it likes.

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    Mute Stephen O'Donoghue
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    Mar 15th 2019, 8:49 AM

    @Jim Buckley Barrett: That has feck all to do with Nuclear weapons which can take out the entire world rather than some far away country with pea shooters. That’s a totally ludicrous statement.

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    Mute Billy Nomates
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    Mar 15th 2019, 8:56 AM

    @Stephen O’Donoghue: and a whackjob has the codes.

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    Mute Stephen O'Donoghue
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    Mar 15th 2019, 9:02 AM

    @Billy Nomates: True, but we need to keep the whackjobs down to a minimum

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Mar 15th 2019, 2:11 PM

    @Stephen O’Donoghue: No it’s not. If American wants denuclearisation then they should lead by example.

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    Mute Stephen O'Donoghue
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    Mar 15th 2019, 2:53 PM

    @Rob Cahill: Have you seen how many countries have nuclear weapons? It has to be a joint venture, one isnt going to disarm while others are not.

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    Mute Bridget O'Hanlon
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    Mar 15th 2019, 7:43 PM

    @Stephen O’Donoghue: But the USA thinks that North Korea should unilaterally disarm. Why should they?

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    Mute Diarmuid Moore
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    Mar 15th 2019, 8:15 AM

    The US don’t want a solution to North Korea. They want a ready to start war for when they are finished in the Middle East or when arms sales are slowing down. This is all just a show and a useful distraction for trump when there is embarrassment at home.

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    Mute Shane Dignam
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    Mar 15th 2019, 12:55 PM

    @Diarmuid Moore: Just to clarify, that’s what the NeoCons, Dems and let’s call them deeply embedded career bureaucrats and agents want, not what The President or the people want.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Mar 15th 2019, 9:27 AM

    Trump whinging about May not taking his negotiating advice while forgetting he’s failed miserably with NK, getting the Mexicans to build a wall, building the wall, winning against China.

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    Mute Xanadu Marmalade
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    Mar 15th 2019, 9:33 AM

    Golden opportunity and Trump throws it away, Golden shower on the other hand.

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    Mute Frank Mullen
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    Mar 15th 2019, 1:59 PM

    It’s hard to fault the North Koreans on this…How bad has the US become if Kim & co are sounding reasonable in comparison

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    Mute Shane Dignam
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    Mar 15th 2019, 1:59 PM

    And in other news, Nancy Pelosi wants to lower the voting age to 16 now that the President is trying to bring in Voter I.D. cards. Not too hard to connect the dots on that one. This after passing a resolution in the House for voting rights for illegals earlier in the week. Whatever it takes to stay in power Nancy.

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    Mute emul8ter25
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    Mar 15th 2019, 6:17 PM

    @Shane Dignam: pot calling the kettle black? Didn’t the Irish kick up hell over a potential required government ID?

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    Mute Shane Dignam
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    Mar 15th 2019, 6:37 PM

    @emul8ter25: Irish in America or here at home? Sorry don’t know what you are referring to. All I know is that the US is one of very few developed countries without voter ID and the dems are desperately trying to allow illegals and minors get the vote to cancel out the losses this would bring about.

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    Mute Billy Nomates
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    Mar 16th 2019, 12:02 AM

    Trump should never have given him a stage like that, he doesn’t need it. Trump is backwards and old school in his negotiations like a 80s Real Estate hustler – shower with unlimited praise and affection , get them to commit then knife in the back. Kim isn’t stupid to fall into his trap.

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