"The Era of Global Warming" has ended, and "The Era of Global Boiling" has begun.

The year 2023 was recorded as the hottest year globally. According to data presented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2023 became the hottest year in history in terms of global atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, by a significant margin. Unfortunately, since the beginning of the 21st century, almost no year has been cooler than the preceding years.

The global average atmospheric temperature, which should normally be around 15°C, reached a historic record of 16.77°C during the summer of 2023. Thus for the summer months, we have exceeded the target of the Paris Agreement, which aimed not to exceed a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). August 2023 also became the hottest August month by far in recorded history.

Source Copernicus: https://climate.copernicus.eu/summer-2023-hottest-record

Before panicking, let's consider what surpassing 1.5 degrees in 2023 actually means: The target outlined by the Paris Agreement suggests that the 20-year running average of global average temperatures needs to be kept below 1.5 degrees. Hence, exceeding this limit in any single year does not necessarily mean that this target has been exceeded.

The world is a living organism like our bodies. Therefore, there are many factors that influence the overall climate as well as the temperatures, rainfall patterns, etc. For example, the fact that 2023 was an "El Niño" year contributed to breaking temperature records in 2023. El Niño influenced many extreme weather events in 2023 such as floods and droughts. It wouldn't be fair to say that these events were entirely caused by El Niño, but it's possible to say that their severity and impact increased due to El Niño.

Global warming has brought heatwaves, floods, droughts, and forest fires with increasing intensities over the past few decades. While the fact that some regions of the world experienced temperatures below average temporarily may raise doubts for many climate sceptics, the increase in global temperature averages have clearly been observed.

Climate alone does not cause global meteorological disasters. However, it can turn a normal natural event into a disaster by increasing the severity and frequency of these weather events. Unfortunately, we have been observing this phenomenon increasingly around the world and in our country in recent years.

Are we ready? "The Era of Global Warming" has ended, "The Era of Global Boiling" has begun.