Scientists found that global warming passed the critical threshold 14 years ago 12:54

Our planet may have crossed the 1.5°C global warming threshold 12 to 14 years ago. This conclusion was reached by Australian geochemists from the Ocean Institute of the University of Western Australia. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nature Climate Change (NCC).

Scientists examined the 300-year-old skeletons of the long-lived marine sponge Ceratoporella nicholsoni, discovered in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Puerto Rico. The content of calcium and strontium elements in these organisms varies depending on the temperature of the environment, which makes it possible to use sponges as a kind of thermometer.

The analysis suggested that the Earth began to warm from the mid-1860s, a period considered a pre-industrial baseline and used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in climate change assessments.

During the relatively stable period 1700–1860, global sea surface temperatures fluctuated by less than 0.2°C, except for brief cooling periods associated with volcanic eruptions.

Using the previous period as a pre-industrial baseline, scientists estimate that global temperatures actually increased by 0.5°C more than the IPCC predicted.

“This is a huge difference compared to the overall amount of warming. Moreover, around 2010-2012 global warming exceeded 1.5°C and may exceed 2°C in the next few years,” says Malcolm McCulloch, lead author of the study.

McCulloch noted that his team tested the accuracy of the sponge-based temperature data by comparing it to average global temperature records from 1964 to 2012. According to the scientist, the results are “perfectly consistent.”

The critical warming threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was set by the Paris climate accords in 2015. The discovery by Australian scientists may indicate that the limit specified at the time of signing the agreement to combat global warming had already been exceeded for several years.

Previously at the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation assumedGlobal warming on Earth will last at least 10 thousand years.