Extract from ABC News
Earth's average temperature has set a new unofficial record high once again, the fourth day in a row it has broken or equalled such a milestone.
Key points:
- The Earth's average temperature was 17.23C on Thursday, breaking the all-time record
- The data, from the University of Mine's Climate Reanalyzer, is regarded as another troubling sign of climate change in action
- Former IPCC chair Robert Watson says the blame lies with governments, the private sector and citizens
The planetary average temperature hit 17.23 degrees Celsius on Thursday, surpassing the 17.18C record set on Tuesday and equalled on Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world's condition.
A previous record of 17.01C was set on Monday.
That average temperature includes measurements from places that are sweltering under dangerous heat — such as Jingxing in China, which checked in at almost 43.3C — and from places where it is merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 4.5C above normal this week.
The United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday issued a note of caution about the Maine tool's findings, saying it could not confirm data that results in part from computer modelling.
"Although NOAA cannot validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognize that we are in a warm period due to climate change," the agency said in a statement.
Still, the Maine data has been widely regarded as another troubling sign of climate change around the globe.
Some climate scientists said this week they were not surprised to see the unofficial records.
Robert Watson, a scientist and former chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said governments and the private sector "are not truly committed to address climate change".
Nor are citizens, he added.
"They demand cheap energy, cheap food and do not want to pay the true cost of food and energy," Dr Watson said.
AP
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