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Earth just had its hottest year on record — climate change is to blame

Around 7.3 billion people faced temperatures strongly influenced by global warming over the past year.
  1. Carissa Wong
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A firefighter takes a water break while combatting a wildfire during an excessive heat warning in Texas.

Extreme-heat events affected places including Texas in the past year. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty

The past 12 months were the hottest on record. Some 7.3 billion people worldwide were exposed, for at least 10 days, to temperatures that were heavily influenced by global warming, with one-quarter of people facing dangerous levels of extreme heat over the past 12 months, according to a report by the non-profit organization Climate Central, based in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Nature 623, 674-675 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03523-3

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