On Wednesday, leading meteorological groups declared that the world is speeding toward a significant global milestone. Although nations are working to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, temperatures are already momentarily rising past that mark.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union has released new research that warns that average global temperatures have exceeded 1.5 C for the past 11 consecutive months. Monthly highs that break records have marked each of the last twelve; this month’s temperatures were roughly 1.52 degrees higher than the planet’s preindustrial normal.
The World Meteorological Organization, meanwhile, reported on Wednesday that there is an 80% probability that at least one of the upcoming five calendar years will see temperatures above the average of 1.5 C. That likelihood was almost nonexistent in 2015, over ten years ago.