New York, Europe Brief News – The UN ’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all set new records last year.
“Our climate is changing before our eyes,” said UN ‘s WMO chief Petteri Taalas.
“The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come. Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented.”
The levels of climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere in 2021 surpassed previous records, the WMO said.
The WMO also confirmed that the past seven years were the top seven hottest years on record.
Globally, the average temperature last year was 1.11 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average, as the world inches closer to the 1.5 C threshold beyond which the effects of warming are expected to become drastic.
Last year’s temperatures were tempered slightly compared with 2020 because of the cooling effects of La Nina in the Pacific.
“It is just a matter of time before we see another warmest year on record,” Taalas said.
The WMO report said rising global temperatures had contributed to many extreme events across the globe.
