“The era of global boiling has arrived” is what the UN chief, António Guterres , presciently declared last year. In 2024, he has continued to be proven right; a report by the EU’s space programme has found it is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record. The scientists found global temperatures for the past 12 months were 1.
62C greater than the 1850-1900 average, when humanity started to burn vast volumes of coal, oil and gas. The chart below shows just how quickly global surface temperatures have climbed, and this year is on track to be the first to hit 1.5C above preindustrial temperatures.
And for some, it felt even hotter. Southern Europe is facing more and more heat stress days, defined as days that feel hotter than 32C, as the chart below shows. This data is from a report by Copernicus , which found that large parts of the area had two full months with “strong heat stress”, reaching 60 days in total over the season.
A few areas in Greece and western Turkey experienced “strong heat stress” on every day of the summer, and about two months of “very strong heat stress”. Though some have the luxury of air conditioning to escape the rocketing temperatures, our reporting this year found groups including migrant workers and prisoners faced stifling, dangerous heat with no respite. Last year’s marine heatwaves shocked scientists, as waters warmed to previously unthinkable levels.
And it appears this was not an anomaly: in the firs.