Recent events that indicate that the Earth’s climate has entered uncharted territory

Like a warming Earth boiled into troubling new territory This week, scientists said unofficial records set for the average planetary temperature are a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said.

Heat sets the pace for our climate in so many ways…it’s never just heat, said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University.

Dying coral reefs, more intense Noreasters, and smoke from the wildfires that choked much of North America this summer are among many other signs of climate discomfort.

Maritime nations on Thursday finalized a plan to reduce shipping sector emissions to zero by 2050, but experts warn the deal falls short of what is needed to prevent the climate catastrophe.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill giving Danish offshore wind developer Orsted a tax break for the first of two energy projects it plans to place in waters off the Jersey Shore.

Germany’s ruling coalition has postponed a vote on controversial legislation to encourage the replacement of heating systems to fossil fuels until September after the country’s supreme court rejected plans to pass it through parliament this week.

The head of global energy giant Shell says it would be irresponsible to cut oil and gas production at a time when the world economy still depends on fossil fuels.

The increasing warming of our planet caused by the use of fossil fuels is not unexpected, but it is dangerous for us humans and the ecosystems on which we depend. We have to stop it, quickly, said Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Some other recent firsts and events that indicate that climate change has entered uncharted territory:

OCEAN WARMING

Most of the planet is covered by oceans, which have absorbed 90% of the recent warming caused by planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. In April, global ocean temperatures rose to 69.98 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 degrees Celsius), which has been attributed to the combination of greenhouse gas emissions and the early formation of El Nino. Recently released data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service documented exceptionally warm ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic with extreme marine heatwaves near Ireland, the UK and in the Baltic Sea.

I SMOKE WILDFIRE

Brought several rounds of fire smoke from northern Canada dangerous levels of air quality to eastern North America. High smoke levels from wildfires have become familiar on the West Coast, but scientists say so climate change will produce fires and smoke more likely and intense and that the east coast will see more.

EL NINO ARRIVES EARLY

The current El Nino, a period of warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean, has been forming for a month or two Before the usualsubstituting for The child which, with its cooling of Pacific waters, served as a damper on global temperatures. This means that he will have more time than usual to strengthen. The World Meteorological Organization predicts that there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest on record, beating out 2016 when there was an exceptionally strong El Nino.

RETRACTION OF ANTARCTIC SEA ICE

Scientists are watching Antarctic sea ice shrink to historic lows. The 4.5 million square miles (11.7 million square kilometers) covered by the sheet on June 27 was nearly 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) less than that date’s average for the period 1981-2010, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In other words, an area nearly four times the size of Texas was gone from the ice sheet.

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Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington.

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