21/03/2024
+60° C in Rio de Janeiro:
https://www.riotimesonline.com/rio-de-janeiro-faces-unseen-heat-levels-exceeds-60c/
Extreme drought in Southern Europe:
https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/european-and-global-drought-observatories/current-drought-situation-europe_en
2024 may therefore turn out hotter than 2023, which had already exceeded +1.5°C above pre-industrial:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68110310
We are reminded that in 2021, the world was “expected to reach 1.5C within 20 years, even in the best-case scenario of deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions”, and that “up to 3bn out of the projected world population of about 9bn could be exposed to temperatures on par with the hottest parts of the Sahara by 2070”:
https://www.ft.com/content/072b5c87-7330-459b-a947-be6767a1099d?fbclid=IwAR16eXuG9r0C4t6FPdpGniy8no5pYXPZGo8agNgLNRhOP2VjGGc0WuNKfIk
Given we have reached +1.5° C in 2023 already, 3b people could well be living in unlivable heat conditions well before 2070
Each degree of warming above present levels corresponds to roughly 1bn people falling outside of ‘climate niche’
