With any luck, 2021 will go down in history as the year even the richest countries stopped talking about the climate crisis in the future tense. Or it’s someone else’s problem elsewhere.
The tragedy is that the unprecedented climate impact has taken a year to get there. Even then, I often struggled to get people to say the word “climate change.”
So how did 2021 turn out to be a record year (for climate change), with unusual (and bad) climate impacts that ultimately put millions of people at risk? Let’s see back at this year.
Heat Wave
Heatwaves are getting longer and more frequent, putting more and more people at risk.
His July this year was the hottest month on record.
On July 9, 2021, Death Valley, California broke the record for the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth with a whopping 54.4°C. This surpassed the world record of 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 °C) set on August 16, 2020. The 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave was the most “abnormal” extreme heat event scientists have ever recorded on Earth. It killed hundreds of people and broke previous temperature records by more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit in various places.
The heatwave caused temperatures to exceed 50°C (122°F) in many rocky coastal habitats, resulting in over a billion coastal animals being cooked to death. Additionally, a new temperature record of 49.6 °C (121.28 °F) was set in Canada.
Europe will experience its hottest summer on record in 2021, surpassing the previous record set in 2020.
In June, temperatures exceeded 50°C (122°F) in at least four countries: Iran, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
FLOOD
Climate change is disrupting the hydrological cycle, increasing the likelihood and severity of heavy rains and extreme flooding. This year, the phenomenon happened all over the world.
The recent floods in Canada could be the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history, costing an estimated $7.5 billion. In July, more than 180 people were killed in floods and landslides in Maharashtra, India. In the same month, he killed more than 300 people in China’s Henan province in the worst rainfall of at least a thousand years.
July also saw historic heavy rains in western Germany and eastern Belgium, causing devastating floods and landslides that claimed more than 200 lives.
In August, Hurricane Ida brought heavy rain to New York City. The rain was so heavy that more rain fell on Central Park in one hour than at any other time during that period. And in August, parts of central Tennessee received up to 43 centimeters (17 inches) of rain within 24 hours, washing away entire homes and killing at least 22 people.
In Brazil, flooding from multiple rivers affected nearly half a million people (over 450,000) in May.
About 780,000 people, or one in his 14 inhabitants, have been affected by the worst floods in his 60 years in South Sudan. The country’s floods set a record for him three years in a row.
Forest Fire
Climate change is creating hot, dry conditions that increase and prolong fire activity around the world. In 2021, this phenomenon has appeared all over the world.
More than 400,000 acres of her burned in Oregon as a result of bootleg fires, the third largest wildfire in history in Oregon.
That year, California’s Dixie Fire became her second-largest in state history, burning nearly half a million acres of land and about 400 homes and businesses.
Wildfires in Russia will destroy more than 18.16 million hectares of forest in 2021, setting a record for the most devastating fire season since Russia began using satellites to monitor wildfires in 2001. rice field. The previous record was set in 2012 when 18.11 million hectares of forest burned. In 2019, Turkey misplaced eleven rectangular kilometers of wooded area to wildfires. 2020 20 square kilometers. This year, a record 1,600 square kilometers of her forest have been lost to fires thanks to a 30% increase in drought and record temperatures. (You read that right.)
In fact, in Turkey, he reported more than 130 forest fires in his seven days in August.
Over,000 hectares( 424 square long hauls) burned in Greece this time. That’s further than five times the monthly normal from 2008 to 2020. Especially, the fires followed nearly after a major heatwave that dried up scarce humidity and left timbers primed to burn.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis said that for Greece, these backfires were “ the topmost ecological catastrophe of the last many decades. ”
HURRICANES AND TYPHOONS
The wisdom is clear global warming is raising ocean temperatures around the world, performing in stronger, more destructive storms.
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season generated 21 named storms, the third most for any Atlantic hurricane season, behind only 2020’s record 30 storms, and 2005 is 28 storms.
In August, Hurricane Ida struck the US as an order 4 hurricane, claiming 91 lives across nine countries. Its damages have been estimated to cost as much as$95 billion.
In May, Tropical Cyclone Tauktae was the strongest storm ever to make landfall on India’s west seacoast. It caused at least 122 deaths and is estimated to have caused over$2 a billion in damages.
Failure
Global warming is causing deeper and longer famines, exposing a growing number of people around the earth to dangerous conditions similar to food instability and clean water dearths.
As of December 7, 2021, nearly 80 of the western United States are in severe failure. In fact, the 20 months from January 2020 to August 2021 were the driest on record for the Southwestern United States, further than 10 below the former record.
The goods of this dry spell are formerly being felt. The country’s two largest budgets, Lake Mead and Lake Powell reached their smallest situations since they were filled. Over 25 million people – further than the entire population of Florida–calculate on Lake Mead alone for water.
Madagascar has been passing its worst failure 40 times. As a result, over1.14 a million people in the region are now considered food insecure and in need of exigency aid.
Central and southern Brazil is passing its worst failure in nearly a century.
A failure that began in 2019 has brought the Paraná River, South America’s alternate-longest raceway, to its smallest position in 77 times.
Further, half of Mexico’s water budgets are at 50 of their capacity or lower, due, in part, to dropped downfall and longer famines.
NOTABLE Citations
In February, the entire state of Texas was under a downtime storm warning for the first time ever. Around4.3 a million people were without electricity at one point, and at least 210 failed. Climate change can complicate temperature axes in both directions, with advanced highs and lower lows.
It’s important to note that low-income communities of color experienced power outages and unsafe living conditions early. The impoverished and disenfranchised are typically the groups least to blame for climatic extremes, yet they frequently bear the brunt of its effects.
Fueled by unusual rainfall connected to climate change, Kenya endured the worst locust outbreak the country has seen 70 times. These are insects that can eat nearly any factory, including crops of grains, vegetables, fruit, and indeed lawn — posing serious trouble to both general food security and the livelihoods of growers and communities that depend on them.
A study released in July conducted by over 30 scientists set up that the Amazon rainforest is probably now a net contributor to carbon emigrations to the earth rather than a carbon Gomorrah.
TAKE ACTION TO FIGHT THE CLIMATE EXTREMITY
Easily, the climate extremity is formerly severe.
But overall differently, we must flashback one thing By taking action moment, we can still avoid the worst of the climate extremity, and in the process, produce a brighter, more just, further sustainable world.
