You may have seen it in the news or suffered it yourself - extreme heat waves, with temperatures rising above normal day after day, for weeks on end.
The trend -which has been escalating for decades- has now become so recurrent that we have almost become dangerously used to it. But there's a limit to how much heat we can withstand.
Every year the global temperatures reach another 'historic peak', in a rising curve that doesn't seem to stop. Why are we experiencing such incredibly hot temperatures? Is there anything we can do?
Find here eight of the factors which, combined, are behind the cause of these extreme temperatures, and what we can do to help.
Back in the early 1980s, scientists around the world warned about the harmful effects of hothouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.
It should be said that Earth already enjoys a natural "mild" greenhouse effect which keeps it at a livable average of about 15°C instead of a freezing -18°C.
In this natural greenhouse effect the radiation from the sun passes through the atmosphere. Natural gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), and methane (CH₄), along with water vapor absorb and scatter this energy, warming the Earth's surface, and the rest is bounced back into space as infrared radiation.
However, abnormally high concentrations of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere drastically reduce the planet's ability to cool itself by radiating excess heat out into space.
Since these first warnings were issued, many changes - to industries, materials, products, legislations, etc.- were made around the globe, but not consistently, not always in the right direction, and not quickly enough.
Thus, an excess of man-made greenhouse gases has continued to accumulate in the atmosphere and still continue to trap the heat within Earth's atmosphere.
We all love sunny days, but clouds are indispensable to maintain Earth's energy balance.
Aside from carrying moisture, a blanket of thick clouds protect Earth from absorbing too much radiation from the sun, and helps in bouncing it back into space - an effect called 'albedo' by scientists.
However, over the past 20 years, Earth's reflective low-level cloud cover has been shrinking by about 1.5% per decade.
Scientists affirm that "since 2003, the decrease of cloudiness has been responsible for half of the increase of Earth’s energy imbalance."
Earth is getting dimmer - and that's not good news.
Fewer clouds mean a lower level of albedo - Earth is letting in more radiation than it reflects, which, due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, gets trapped in the atmosphere.
Without enough clouds, the oceans absorb more solar energy instead of reflecting it, thus speeding up the global warming effect.
In addition, warmer oceanic temperatures reduce even further Earth's cloud cover, creating even more heat, in a self-reinforcing loop.
3.-Warming up of the Oceans
Oceans occupy the largest expanse in the planet, and they act like Earth's "cooling ponds" - if they warm up, Earth gets warmer too.
Over the past decade, the world's oceans have warmed at an accelerated pace, absorbing over 90% of the excess heat trapped by the excess of greenhouse gasses.
Ocean surface temperatures now rise by about 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade -
four times faster than the rate recorded in the late 1980s. A report by the World Resources Institute showed that the warming rate doubled between 2005 and 2025 compared to previous decades.
And this trend is only set to increase in the upcoming years.
The warming up of the oceans has serious consequences felt throughout the planet. These include rising of sea levels and an increase in coastal flooding, marine heatwaves and loss of oxygen in the seas, both of which destroy ocean life.
In addition, warmer seas feed extra energy and moisture into storms, making hurricanes and heavy rainfalls much more severe.
According to the
World Resources Institute, in 2023 and early 2024, global ocean temperatures hit record highs; and while some of this warmth came from the El Niño climatic phenomenon, 44% of this record warmth was attributable to the oceans absorbing heat at a faster rate than in previous decades.
4.-El Niño, La Niña
Two climatic phenomena that are linked, they boy and the girl are anything but innocent, and throw devastating tantrums across the planet.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these are
opposite phases of the ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) climate cycle, which shifts ocean temperatures and winds in the Pacific Ocean.
During normal conditions, trade winds blow west along the equator, moving warm water from South America towards Asia. To replace this volume of warm water, cold water rises from the depths of the ocean, in a process called "upwelling".
El Niño warms up ocean temperatures, and the surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific become much warmer than average.
All these changes cause global impacts, bringing heavy rains and floods to parts of South America, causing droughts and wildfires in Australia and Indonesia, as well as raising global temperatures and reducing Atlantic hurricane activity.
On the other hand, la Niña cools ocean temperatures below average. This in turn affect the trade winds, becoming stronger than usual. These push warm water toward Asia, and bring heavy rains to Australia and Indonesia while causing severe draughts in the Americas.
These two systems are the largest source of climate extremes in our planet.
Generally, El Niño occurs more frequently than La Niña, but both climatic events have an impact on hurricanes and other extreme climatic events across the planet.
According to a recent study published by
Science magazine, El Niño has intensified 36% in the past 40 years, and it's getting stronger due to climate change, in a dangerous cycle that doesn't have signs of ending anytime soon.
5.-Global Deforestation
Aside from being Earth's lungs - trapping carbon monoxide and releasing oxygen -, forests are indispensable for the generation and entrapment of moisture in the planet.
The water cycle is simple but vital for life on our planet, and one of its key elements are trees.
Image: California American Water
Although
official reports state that deforestation has decreased since the 1980s, these studies do not take into account other extensive causes of deforestation aside from forest clearing, such as natural catastrophes (landslides, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, extensive droughts, etc.), widespread armed conflicts, and wildfires.
The truth is that, global forest loss still remains 63% above the rate needed to stop clearing forests by 2030.
According to a
study published by the Forest Stewardship Council, just in 2024 a whopping 6.7 million hectares of tropical rainforest were lost (an area nearly the size of Panama), and in these past 2 decades, Europe has lost 2.25 million of hectares of tall forests.
The main culprit for this deforestation is agriculture - an 80% of global deforestation is linked to land clearing for crops and livestock.
In addition to decreasing Earth's capacity to absorb carbon monoxide, in 2024 alone deforestation generated 3.1 gigatonnes of CO₂ emissions, which directly contributes to global warming.
6.- Wildfires
Wildfires, often man-provoked and now spurred by global warming, only add more fuel to the problem.
Although fires are not uncommon occurrences in nature, most of the wildfires affecting the planet in later years have been the direct cause of human action, either unintentionally or carried out by arsonists.
According to major
studies published in Science Magazine, 43% of the world's most catastrophic wildfire disasters over the last 44 years have occurred in the past decade alone.
Satellite data from the University of Maryland reported that tree cover loss due to intense stand-replacing fires has doubled over the past two decades, most of the destruction located in boreal and tropical forests in massive amounts.
And while, according to statistics, the overall total burned area of the planet has decreased due to changes in land-use in savannas and grasslands, catastrophic forest fires have surged dramatically in the past decade - and the effects have been felt everywhere.
Canada and the western United States have experienced longer, more severe fire seasons with record-breaking acreage burned. The Amazon basin and parts of Brazil and Bolivia have faced severe ecological destruction from deforestation and climate-driven drought conditions. Mediterranean and western European countries have encountered escalating summer heatwaves and severe, recurring emergency wildfire seasons. Even the northern forests in Russia and Canada have seen unprecedented fire activity.
Each one of the burnt areas require decades before they are capable of functioning again as the planet's green lungs, at a time when Earth's self-healing conditions are greatly diminished due to extreme warmth.
Aside from the material destruction and loss of lives caused by these events, wildfires have increased the hothouse gases released to the atmosphere, elevated the global temperature and decreased the number of trees that would have helped with the generation of clouds and the water cycle.
7.-Increase in energy consumption
Boilers, toasters, hair dryers, air conditioning units, heaters, blankets, minifridges, laptops, tables, video consoles, smartphones, cars, trains, buses... According to Our World in Data, since the 1980s, the global energy consumption has doubled.
This growth obbeys to a number of reasons, but in essence it's because the global population in these four decades has multiplied, and our energy consumption has increased as well, with a proliferation of electrical appliances so accesible and widespread that they have become indispensable for our lives.
Electricity has long been deemed a 'green' and 'clean' form of energy, eschewing the fact that electricity generation requires massive amounts of coal, natural gas, and fossil fuels.
Because, while
our energy consumption has doubled since the 1980s, the sources to generate it have remained practically the same.
In fact, only 30% of the electricity in the world is generated from sustainable sources, such as wind power, solar power, or nuclear power; but even each one of these alternatives carry their own
ecological impact.
The inescapable truth is, generating energy means generating waste and emanating heat.
The worst is that, with an increase in temperatures, the first reaction is to turn on the
air conditioning, in a so-called 'doom-loop' which worsens even further the problem.
8.-Digitalization and Database Centers
As with every new technology, digital technologies have provided us with splendid benefits but also severe inconveniences.
Long tauted as a 'green' choice due to reducing paper consumption (sparing trees and forests), this simplistic statement belies a darker truth.
The practical nature of digital technologies and its global proliferation have brought along problems such as digital obsolesce and the un rise of artificial intelligence; but nothing increases global warming more directly than
Digital Pollution and Database Centers.
Behind every web surfing, online gaming, video streaming, social media sharing, photo we save, and AI search we do, there is a Data Base Center.
The size of football fields, these centers are essential to the functioning of all the digital apps and services we enjoy.
Just like our digital devices emit heat when we use them, Database Centers also release massive amounts of heat into the atmosphere. However, digital technology requires cool conditions to function properly, and in order to cool down, Database Centers use massive amounts of fresh water, which is returned to nature with the excess of heat.
This excess of heat not only kills the natural species in the rivers, lakes, and ponds but, as it reaches the sea, it directly contributes to the warming up of the oceans.
Measures are currently being taken to reduce the ecological impact of databases, but these solutions will not arrive soon enough.
What to do?
*Lower your energy consumption - Avoid any electrical appliance that has an analog counterpart (books, blankets, toothbrushes, etc.) and buy energy efficient appliances.
*Lower your carbon footprint - Calculating your carbon footprint and taking action to lower it to a minimum will contribute to the global effort against global warming.
*Be an efficient digital user - Clean regularly your email, smartphone and cloud archives, and be mindful of your digital footprint, from the device you use to the activity you keep.
*Prefer passive cooling solutions - Avoid using air conditioning as much as possible and rely instead on passive cooling solutions, which do not require energy and do not add to the global warming problem.
*Support green companies - It's no denying that, when it comes to global warming, large companies have a huge impact and responsibility. Get acquainted with their environmental policies and support those with green practices.
*Be mindful of what you buy - Avoid ingredients such as palm tree oil (which contributes to deforestation) or natural products that do not come from local responsible sources.
*Plant trees - Although trees are essential in decreasing the planet's temperature, the action of planting trees should not end there. Planting a tree also means providing it with the conditions to grow healthily over time, caring for its survival. If you live in a city and can't have a garden, "adopt" a tree and help it grow, or join a community garden.
For more ideas and information, check out our related articles.
The impact of our actions have a butterfly effect - they will not only affect us directly, but also the entire planet. What you do at home, at work, in your city, will have repercussions at the other end of the globe, and also back home.
It may seem moot to say it one more time, but it's true - small gestures can amount to a big difference. Just as our combined carelessness have brought us to the edge, our combined mindful actions may help revert the damage and tip the balance towards Earth's recovery.
Correcting global warming demands putting Earth and ecology first in every action we do. That means making some personal sacrifices - is the Earth worth it?
The answer is in our hands.
To Learn More
To learn more about the impact of Database Centers on global warming, read the study lead by Dr. David Sailor on the subject: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4071922
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