2023 was the hottest year in @NASA’s record, continuing a human-caused, long term warming trend.
2023 was a record-breaking year in many ways. We also experienced the hottest summer and fall on record, and Sept. 2023’s global temperature anomaly – deviation from the 1951-1980 baseline – was the largest on record. Each year in the last decade was in the top 10 warmest years.
The record-breaking heat was due to high greenhouse gas emissions (like carbon dioxide), the transition to El Niño conditions, and other factors that scientists are still researching. Generally, La Niña brings cooler temperatures and El Niño brings warmer temperatures. High greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and the transition out of three La Niña years were largely responsible for 2023 setting a new record.
Last year, NASA and our partners launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to share climate data for these heat-trapping gases.
Our record, called GISTEMP, is calculated from millions of measurements from thousands of weather stations on land, ships and ocean buoys, and Antarctic research stations. It uses data starting in 1880, when coverage makes it possible to reliably estimate global temperature.
Despite 2023 being the globally hottest year, individual locations may not have experienced a record warm year. However, the effects of our changing climate are felt globally, with record droughts, shifting fire seasons, and sudden, intense precipitation events.
At NASA, our unique vantage point from space is crucial to monitoring the causes and impacts of climate change – both those we’re experiencing now, and what we can expect to see in the future. We’re designing, building, and launching missions to study Earth in new ways and provide data for models that project how Earth systems will respond to rising carbon.
By working with our partners at @NOAA and other federal agencies, and making our data available to local decision-makers and people on the ground, NASA is helping the world prepare for life on a warming planet.
#Earth #NASA #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Science
The UK’s acceleration toward *sustainable construction* underscores a decisive shift from ambition to delivery. National Grid ESO’s reforms to the grid connection process remove zombie projects and prioritise actionable, low carbon design ready to unlock billions in clean energy infrastructure. This structural change supports *green infrastructure* essential to *decarbonising the built environment*, linking energy planning with *sustainable building practices* that address both whole life carbon and embodied carbon impacts through rigorous whole life carbon assessment.
Offshore wind’s expansion, now generating nearly one-fifth of Britain’s electricity, highlights how *environmental sustainability in construction* relies on scalable, *eco-friendly construction* solutions. The developing offshore supply chain demands *sustainable building design* that integrates *circular economy in construction* strategies and *resource efficiency in construction*, enabling the transition towards *net zero carbon buildings* and *net zero whole life carbon* performance.
While material innovation remains subdued, the rise of energy-efficiency retrofits reflects a shift towards life cycle cost optimisation and *building lifecycle performance* over short-term gain. Firms such as Mapei point to recovery driven by energy-efficient buildings and *low embodied carbon materials*, reinforcing the value of *eco-design for buildings* and *sustainable material specification* guided by *environmental product declarations (EPDs)*. These principles strengthen the circular economy ethos and advance *carbon footprint reduction* across every project stage, from design to *end-of-life reuse in construction*.
Africa’s emerging solar market signals global diversification of *green construction*, with the continent expected to become a testbed for *low carbon building* strategies suited to extreme climates. The transition invites adoption of *circular construction strategies*, *renewable building materials*, and *sustainable urban development* underpinned by *life cycle thinking in construction*.
The alignment of policy reform, financial investment, and technical capability confirms that *sustainable design* has become core to delivering *carbon neutral construction* and reducing the *carbon footprint of construction* worldwide. The era of incremental action is ending—the new metric of success is measurable whole life carbon performance and resilient, *green building materials* innovation delivering true *sustainability* in the built environment.
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