先月は観測史上最も暑い９月に　ＥＵ機関発表

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】先月は世界的に観測史上最も暑い9月だったと、欧州連合（EU）のコペルニクス気候変動サービス（C3S）が7日に発表した。観測史上最も暑かった年は2016年だが、今年は1月からその記録に迫っている。（写真は熱波に見舞われたイラク首都バグダッドで、路上に設置されたシャワーで涼む人々）
　Ｃ３Ｓによると、今年の１、５、９月は各月の史上最高気温を更新し、４、６月は最高記録に匹敵する暑さだったという。
　９月末までの１２か月間の地球の平均気温は、産業革命以前の水準より１．３度近く高かった。
　これは、国連（ＵＮ）の「気候変動に関する政府間パネル（ＩＰＣＣ）」が２０１８年に報告した、深刻な影響が生じる限界点である「１．５度」の気温上昇に非常に近い。
　地球温暖化対策の国際的枠組み「パリ協定」は各国に対し、地球温暖化を２度より「はるかに低く」、できれば１．５度に抑えるよう求めている。
　地球の平均気温は産業革命前と比べてすでに１度上昇しており、甚大な被害を及ぼす熱波や干ばつを悪化させ、海面上昇で破壊力を増した熱帯性低気圧の強度を増大させている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/10/08-10:29）

Earth's surface was warmer last month than during any September on record, with temperatures since January tracking those of the hottest ever calendar year in 2016, the European Union's Earth Observation Programme said Wednesday.
This year has now seen three months of record warmth -- January, May and September -- with June and April virtually tied for first, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported.
There is currently little difference between 2020 and 2016 for the year-to-date, Copernicus senior scientist Freja Vambourg told AFP.
For the 12-month period through September, the planet was nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
That is alarmingly close to the 1.5C threshold for severe impacts detailed in a major 2018 report by the UN's climate science advisory panel, the IPCC.
The Paris Agreement has enjoined nations to cap global warming at well below 2C, and 1.5C if feasible.
So far, Earth has warmed on average by one degree, enough to boost the intensity of deadly heatwaves, droughts and tropical storms made more destructive by rising seas.
Climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels has picked up pace in recent decades.
Nineteen of the 20 last years are the warmest since accurate readings began in the late 19th century.
Since the late 1970s, the global thermometer has crept up 0.2C every decade, according to EU data.
Temperatures in September were exceptionally high over northern Siberia, which -- along with much of the Arctic Circle -- has seen freakishly warm weather for months.
September was brutal in the Middle East, with new high temperatures reported in Turkey, Israel and Jordan.
- Fire and ice -
Parts of North Africa and Tibet were also scorching hot, while maximum daytime values reached 49C in Los Angeles County early in the month.
Across California, five of the state's six biggest wildfires in history were still burning at the end of the month.
September was warmer by 0.05C than September 2019, the previous warmest September, the Copernicus report said.
Last month's global record for heat was all the more remarkable because of the regional cooling effect of a naturally occurring La Nina weather event over the tropical Pacific.
Arctic sea ice, meanwhile, shrank to its second lowest extent last month, slipping below four million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) for only the second time since satellite records began in 1978, according to C3S.
The Arctic ice cap floats on ocean water around the North Pole, and thus does not contribute directly to sea level rise when it melts.
But it does accelerate global warming.
Freshly fallen snow reflects 80 percent of the Sun's radiative force back into space.
But when that mirror-like surface is replaced by deep blue water, about the same percentage of Earth-heating energy is absorbed instead.
Climate change has also disrupted regional weather patterns, resulting in more sunshine beating down on the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting -- and shedding mass into the ocean -- more quickly than at any time in the last 12,000 years, according to a study last week.
In 2019, the ice sheet -- which holds enough frozen water to lift global oceans seven metres (23 feet) -- shed more than half-a-trillion tonnes, roughly equivalent to three million tonnes of water every day, or six Olympic pools every second.