Annual assessment report on the state of climate change and the human capacity to respond, announced on December 3, the United Nations declared this decade to be the hottest decade in history.
As part of the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 25) being held in Madrid, the Spanish capital, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported over the past four decades, each decade has been warmer than the last. Global temperatures are now 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average, and 2019 is on track to become one of the three hottest years in history.
Emissions from fossil fuel combustion, infrastructure construction, agriculture and freight transport put 2019 at risk of breaking a record high carbon density in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the oceans, which absorb up to 90% of the heat from greenhouse gas emissions, are also experiencing record heat levels.
The acidity level of the seas is also 25% higher than it was 150 years ago, threatening the marine ecosystem on which billions of people around the world depend for their livelihoods.
Last October, global sea level reached record levels, due to the melting of 329 tonnes of ice in Greenland in one year.
At the same time, the frequency of hot weather and flooding is increasing. With temperatures 1 degree C above pre-industrial levels, 2019 saw extreme heat in Europe, Australia and Japan, devastation from super typhoons in South East Africa, as well as wildfires in Australia and the United States. US state of California.
Climate change is no longer a phenomenon faced by future generations, but today millions of people are suffering from the effects of exploitation and human consumption. More than 10 million people were displaced in the first half of 2019, of which 7 million people suffered from extreme weather events such as storms, droughts and floods.
