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Record hot March sparks climate warning

March 2024 was 1.68C warmer than "pre-industrial" times, says the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The month of March this year was the hottest ever recorded. And if you think you've heard that before - you have.

Because it's the tenth consecutive month of record breaking global temperatures according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

One leading scientist from Nasa's Goddard Institute told the ±«Óătv that the climate could move into "uncharted territory" such is the speed at which these records are being broken.

Last month was up 0.1 Celsius on the previous record, set in 2016, and 1.68 degrees above the pre-industrial average - when humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels.

Newsday asked Carlo Buontempo in Bonn, Germany - the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service - what the latest data says about the rate of climate change.

"Over the next ten, or fifteen years the temperature will keep rising almost independently of what we are doing. But then we have a chance of reversing that... if we can put our act together."

"But for sea level... that's going to take centuries [to return to present levels]."

(Pic: Women taking shade from the sun; Credit: Getty Images)

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