Scientists Have Confirmed That the Past Decade Has Been the Hottest on Record Globally
The Climate Crisis
The past decade has been the hottest on record as the climate crisis has warmed the globe, scientists have confirmed. 2019 was the second – or third-warmest year on record. Each decade since 1980 has been warmer than the previous one, and the period from 2010 to 2019 has been the warmest since global temperature records began in the 19th century, the report said. The rate of global average temperature rise is accelerating rapidly, with the average global temperature in the past decade 0.39 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term average, compared with an average rise of 0.07 degrees Celsius every decade since 1880. The past six years (2014-2019) have been the warmest period on record globally, with huge heat waves in the US, Europe and India, unusually high temperatures in the Arctic and deadly wildfires in Australia, California and Greece.
The Temperature Rise
Last year was the second warmest on record, according to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while the UK Met Office recorded the third warmest year. Overall, the world has warmed by an average of about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times. "As this latest assessment fully confirms, we have just witnessed the warmest decade on record," said Michael Mann, a climatologist at Penn State University. "As confirmed by other recent reports, significant action to double emissions over the next decade is needed if we are to hold temperature rises below the catastrophic level of 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the more dangerous effects of climate change." The report, compiled by 520 scientists from more than 60 countries and published in the monthly bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Outlines the ways in which rising temperatures are changing the planet and human life.
The Impact of Extreme Events
The effects of the climate crisis are being felt around the world, including recent widespread flooding in East Africa and wildfires in Australia, the Amazon rainforest and Siberia. Robert Dunn, a climate scientist at the UK Met Office, said temperatures at the start of the century were higher than at any comparable period since the Industrial Revolution. "Some extreme events, such as mountain fires, heat waves and droughts, are at least partly rooted in global warming," he said. For 2019, climate indicators and observations show that the global climate is still changing rapidly."
