without man-made climate change due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The heatwave was devastating in the northern country, which is not built for extreme heat and houses are built to store heat for a climate that rarely sees such high temperatures.
Climate scientists point out that since 1999, the number of high temperature records being broken globally has outpaced the number of new low temperature recordsTemperature data also shows that global average temperatures have risen by 1.2° C since the start of the industrial revolution, when mankind began pumping unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“We can see signs of destabilization already in parts of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, in permafrost regions, the Amazon rainforest, and potentially the Atlantic overturning circulation as well,” the study’s lead author, David Armstrong McKay, who is affiliated with the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the University of Exeter, said in a statement. “The world is already at risk of some tipping points. As global temperatures rise further, more tipping points become possible.