Climate, changed
In environmental news, headlines were dominated by record-shattering climate figures, as global temperatures soared to preternatural highs and, month-on-month, anomalous weather patterns became the norm.
Collectively, we watched an unusually warm January transition into a series of extreme weather events in the spring — including ice storms, tornadoes, and cyclones — seeing all-time high ocean temps swelter through the hottest summer in recent history, where the global surface air temperature peaked at 17.08°C on July 6th, the world’s warmest averaged recorded day.
As the scorching summer fueled catastrophic wildfires the world over, burning 18 million hectares of land in Canada alone, exceptionally high temperatures persisted into the El Niño-impacted autumn and winter months — leading scientists to conclude that 2023 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record.
Fever pitches
2023’s startling temperatures did, however, propel pertinent changes in global climate policy: international summits such as COP28 paved the way for a fossil fuel phase-down (even if a full phase-out is yet to be promised) and mammoth investments into clean energy put renewable sources, like wind and solar power, on track to extend their lead over coal in the coming years.
