Evidence of Climate 'Doomsday' Visible in Tree Rings, Researchers Reveal

A study has found evidence that the ‘doomsday’ of global warming can be observed in tree trunks. This approach differs because it can record a much longer timeframe compared to satellite data, which only goes back 50 years. Ulf Buntgen from the University of Cambridge and his team analysed tree rings, the concentric lines visible in a cross-section of a trunk. These rings reveal the environmental conditions experienced by the tree in a given year. The analysis revealed that the hottest period in 2,000 years occurred in 2023. “When you look at the very long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is. 2023 was an exceptionally hot year, and this trend will continue unless greenhouse gases are drastically reduced,” said Buntgen. The researchers also identified the coldest weather in the year 536, when summer temperatures were recorded as 3.93 degrees Celsius lower than last year. The temperature increase at the start of the industrial revolution era was recorded as lower than it is now. Data from Buntgen’s team recorded that the summer of 2023 was 2.03 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850-1900 period. As a result, the new data renders the temperature rise target in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the measurement of global warming severity based on that agreement inaccurate. The Paris Agreement recorded that 2023 was indeed hotter, but the figure was 1.52 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 baseline. “It is true that the climate is always changing, but the warming in 2023, caused by greenhouse gases and exacerbated by El Nino, led to heatwaves and longer periods of drought. This shows how urgent it is to immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jan Esper from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.