Scientists confirm global warming is accelerating faster than ever recorded
arth is warming faster than ever recorded, with scientists detecting a major acceleration in global temperatures since around 2015. A new study reveals that the warming rate has surged to approximately 0.35°C per decade, nearly double the average pace observed from 1970 to 2015. After removing natural climate fluctuations, researchers confirmed the acceleration with more than 98% statistical confidence.++
Global warming has accelerated sharply over the past decade, with Earth heating up faster than at any point since modern temperature records began in 1880. A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) provides the first statistically significant evidence that the pace of global warming has increased since around 2015, even after accounting for natural factors that temporarily raise or lower global temperatures.
Researchers found that the planet has warmed at a rate of approximately 0.35°C per decade over the past 10 years, although the exact figure varies depending on the temperature dataset used. That is nearly twice the average rate of just under 0.2°C per decade recorded between 1970 and 2015. The findings suggest that global temperatures are not simply continuing to rise. The rate at which they are increasing has also become substantially faster.
“We can now demonstrate a strong and statistically significant acceleration of global warming since around 2015,” says Grant Foster, a US statistics expert and co-author of the study, published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.