Scientists confirm long hot summer,

Meteorologists are rolling out information related to new and new records, and the studies are not encouraging at all. The big problem is that things are expected to get even hotter. Last summer was just the hottest on record, the hottest in 2,000 years, according to a new study. European researchers determined last year that the period from June to August was the warmest since records began in 1940 - a clear sign of climate change fueling new extremes. The heat of the summer of 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere also eclipses records over a much longer period, found a study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature. "When you look at a long period of history, you can see how dramatic recent global warming is," said study co-author Jan Esper, a climatologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany. In the summer of 2023, land temperatures in areas located between 30 and 90 degrees north latitude were 2.07 degrees Celsius higher compared to pre-industrial averages, according to the study. "We shouldn't be surprised," Jan Esper told AFP. "To me, it's just the continuation of what we started with the release of greenhouse gases," with the massive use of fossil fuels since the industrial age, he stressed. Scientists used data recorded at weather stations since the mid-1800s, combined with information stored in tree rings from thousands of trees at nine sites in the Northern Hemisphere, to find annual temperatures in the distant past.

Last summer, they found, was 2.2 degrees Celsius warmer than average temperatures estimated between the years 1 and 1890, based on these tree rings. Scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said in January that it was "highly likely" that 2023 would have been the warmest in the last 100,000 years. However, Jan Esper and a team of European researchers rejected these claims. They argue that the scientific methods used to collect past climate information, from sources such as lake and marine sediments and peatlands, do not allow annual comparisons to be made to find out extreme temperatures over such a vast period of time. "We don't have that kind of data," Esper said. "It was an exaggerated statement," added the specialist. The warming associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels was amplified last summer by an El Nino climate pattern that generally leads to higher global temperatures, Esper said. "We end up facing longer and more severe heat waves and prolonged periods of drought," he added. Hotter summers also have health consequences. In another study, published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers determined that tens of millions of people over the age of 69 will be exposed to days characterized by extreme heat, dangerous to their health, by 2050. Currently, 14% of the elderly are exposed to days when thermometers exceed 37.5 degrees Celsius, which can aggravate a series of medical problems and can even lead to death. This figure is expected to increase to 23% in 2050, according to this study. Europe, the fastest-warming continent, will thus face a more brutal change, even though governments in most countries have implemented measures to support populations during heatwaves. Certain regions in Africa and Asia are already used to extreme temperatures, but lack the resources - drinking water or a well-developed sanitation system - to help the elderly.