2024 was another year of record-breaking temperatures, driving the global water cycle to new climate extremes and contributing to ferocious floods and crippling droughts, a new report led by The Australian National University (ANU) shows.
2024 was another year of record-breaking temperatures, driving the global water cycle to new climate extremes and contributing to ferocious floods and crippling droughts, a new report led by The Australian National University (ANU) shows.
The 2024 Global Water Monitor Report, involving an international team of researchers and led by ANU Professor Albert van Dijk, found rising temperatures are changing the way water moves around the planet, “wreaking havoc” on the water cycle.
“Rising sea surface temperatures intensified tropical cyclones and droughts in the Amazon Basin and southern Africa. Global warming also contributed to heavier downpours and slower-moving storms, as evidenced by deadly flash floods in Europe, Asia and Brazil,” Professor van Dijk said.
In 2024, about four billion people across 111 countries – half of the world’s population − experienced their warmest year yet. Professor van Dijk said air temperatures over land in 2024 were 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than at the start of the century, and about 2.2 degrees Celsius higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Read more at Australian National University
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