The climate crisis remains: The year 2021 will also be one of the ten hottest on record – and the outlook for 2022 does not look much better.
New York – whether heat waves, droughts, forest fires, floods, tornadoes or record rainfall – in many places around the world extreme weather events in 2021 have made it clear how much the effects of climate change can already be felt.
Experts are certain: 2021 will again be one of the hottest years since records began, and there is no sign of a trend reversal.
With a probability of more than 99 percent, 2021 will end up among the ten warmest years since records began, according to the US climate agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in early December. In all probability it will be the sixth hottest year. The ten hottest years so far were all measured in the past two decades: 2016, 2020, 2019, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005.
Significant warming
The World Weather Organization WMO had previously announced that, according to preliminary measurements, the year 2021 will probably not be quite as hot as the past three years, but that nothing has changed in the long-term trend of significant warming. 2021 will be one of the seven warmest years in recent history – all since 2015.
At the UN climate conference in Scotland in November, the global farewell to coal was heralded, but with clearly watered down formulations. “Here is a short summary: Bla, bla, bla”, commented climate activist Greta Thunberg and UN Secretary General António Guterres said the consensus was an “important step”, but “not enough”. “We are digging our own grave,” the UN chief had previously warned.
Numerous regional climate records were broken in 2021. Land temperatures in the northern hemisphere in the fall were on average higher than at any time since NOAA records began in 1880.
Arctic in dire straits
Scientists say that the Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world. “The influences of man-made climate change are driving the Arctic region into a dramatically different state than that which prevailed a few decades ago,” said NOAA CEO Rick Spinrad. “These trends are alarming and undeniable. We have reached a crucial moment. We have to act and face the climate crisis. “
In addition, researchers are worried about other persistent trends such as the low extent of the ice cover in the Antarctic and the high emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). And the outlook for 2022 does not promise any improvement either. According to NOAA scientists, the probability is now more than 99 percent that 2022 will again be one of the ten hottest years since records began. dpa
