The worst wildfires in US history, Arctic sea ice trending towards a historic low, simultaneous hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the hottest summer in the northern hemisphere since records began: scientists say this year’s sequence of natural disasters and record temperatures have exceeded their worst fears.
“We were speculating 40 years ago about things that might happen, and I don’t think that any of us expected that in our lifetimes, we would see these things unfolding,” said Chris Rapley, a 73-year-old professor of climate science at University College London. “It has become a real problem of today, rather than a predicted problem of tomorrow.”
The natural disasters have brought home the great economic and social costs of a hotter planet, which has warmed by about 1C over the past century.