Climate change reaches danger zone

(CNS): Global temperatures are now heating up more quickly and reaching new highs that scientists have long warned is within the danger zone. Preliminary unofficial data released from NASA weather satellites revealed that last month Earth’s temperature was as much as 1.4 degrees warmer than average, making February an unusually warm month and the highest on record for world temperatures. Scientists fear that this is even worse than expected, as the rise comes after January 2016 had just been declared the hottest January ever and now February appears set to be even hotter.

Initial satellite measurements, compiled by meteorologist and writer Eric Holthaus, found that the temperature in the northern hemisphere breached the 2 degrees Celsius above normal for the first time in recorded history, and likely the first time since human civilization.

That mark has long been held as the point above which climate change may begin to become “dangerous” to humanity. “It’s now arrived—though very briefly—much more quickly than anticipated,” he said. Describing the temperature surge as a terrifying milestone, he said, “Climate change deserves our greatest possible attention.”

Other climate scientists have said the way above average temperatures for January and February have been influenced by the El Nino phenomena but they say that greenhouse gases are also behind the significant increase and  warn that even if the increase in temperatures is temporary, it still poses significant dangers to ecosystems around the world.

In addition to bleaching impacts on coral reefs, scientists have previously warned that one in six species could be made extinct by climate change by the end of the century and that nations in central Asia, Africa and South America stand to be the most vulnerable if temperatures reach life-threatening levels.