Earth experiences hottest year on record

If you felt like this has been a warm year, you’re not alone. Researchers say the past 12 months have been the hottest on record.

A recent report by the nonprofit organization Climate Central found that between Nov. 1,2022 and Oct. 31,2023, 90% of people around the world “experienced at least 10 days of temperatures very strongly affected by climate change.” Seventy-three percent experienced more than a month’s worth of these temperatures.

“This is the hottest temperature that our planet has experienced in something like 125,000 years,” Andrew Pershing, vice-president for science at Climate Central, told Nature.

“The highest exposures to climate-driven heat were in the tropics, concentrating the impact on developing countries,” the report found. “However, every country experienced some level of climate-driven heat; and streaks of intense heat occurred in the U.S., Europe, India and China.”

For more on rising temperatures have affected wildlife, check out the November/December issue of The Wildlife Professional.

Read more about the Climate Central study in Nature.