The world just experienced its hottest April on record, extending an 11-month streak in which every month set a temperature record, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service said on May 8. Each month since June 2023 has ranked as the planet’s hottest on record, compared with the corresponding month in previous years, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The world’s average temperature was the highest on record for a 12-month period, including April, with a rise of 1.61 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period. Some scientists are investigating whether human activity has triggered a tipping point in the climate system. Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and the natural El Nino phenomenon have contributed to the rise in temperatures. The data shows that the world is perilously close to breaching the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. Climatologists urge governments to take urgent and drastic measures to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming.