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Heat waves and sultry weather have hit every part of the world earlier than usual in recent years, renewing the previous high-temperature record continuously.

According to a report released by the World Meteorological Organization in January this year, the average global temperature in 2024 reached a record high since meteorological observation began.

The mean global temperature last year rose by 0.12℃ as compared to 2023, which was the hottest year previously, and this means the temperature is 1.6℃ higher than that in the pre-Industrial Revolution days.

Untimely high temperature has been observed in succession in different parts of the world this year, too, after last year, breaking the highest records.

The Copernican climate change service, the meteorological information agency of the European Union, recently announced that January this year was recorded worldwide as the hottest January in history and that the average global temperature in the period was 1.75℃ higher than in the period before the Industrial Revolution.

Actually, temperatures higher than normal year were observed in Africa, South America, South Pole and other regions.

Last June, premature heat waves hit Europe which experienced the hottest March in the history of observation.

The thermometer measured 38.4℃ in a city in the southeastern region of Slovenia on June 26, recording the highest temperature in June.

With temperature soaring as high as 39℃ in Boston in late June, high temperature records were broken successively in 20 areas of the US.

Heated asphalt roads swelled everywhere in the country to cause traffic accidents one after another and some people who were working outdoors collapsed.

Meteorologists said that summer in the US is about 1.3℃ hotter than 50 years ago, adding excessive heat that used to occur in July or August in the past happened a month earlier this year.

This clearly shows that global warming is accelerating.

International organizations warned that unless global warming is held in check, the frequency of extremely high temperature, which had occurred once in 50 years in the pre-Industrial Revolution period, will get greater and its intensity will get higher.

They assert that the area of glaciers has already reached a record low due to the persistent temperature rise and that if glaciers melt at the unpredictable speed as it is now, two billion people might suffer food scarcity worldwide.

There is a growing concern that global warming might generate 216 million refugees by 2050 in different parts of the world including Latin America and North Africa.

The reality shows that a threat to human existence from global warming is no longer a future abstract notion and urgently demands proactive measures to prevent catastrophic disaster.