According to European scientists, the year 2021 was the fifth hottest ever on record. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the yearly average temperature was 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels between 1850 and 1900.
Despite the cooling influence of the natural La Nina weather phenomenon, this was the case. The last seven years, according to the C3S, “have been the warmest years on record by a wide margin.”
2020 and 2016 were the warmest years on record.
The experts also stated that levels of global warming gases like carbon dioxide and methane have continued to rise with no signs of slowing. Following CO2, methane (CH4) is the gas most responsible for global warming. While it has a shorter life in the atmosphere than CO2, it is many times more potent. Here’s a look at some of the key events that occurred in 2021, as experts issue yet another alarm about climate change and its negative influence on our lives:
According to CS3, Europe’s last summer was the hottest on record, following a warm March and an exceptionally cold April that destroyed fruit crops in nations like France and Hungary. A
Mediterranean heatwave sparked massive wildfires in Turkey and Greece, among other countries. Sicily established a new European high-temperature record of 48.8 degrees Celsius.
• More than 200 people died in Western Europe in July as a result of devastating flooding caused by heavy rain. Climate warming, according to scientists, has increased the likelihood of floods by at least 20%.
• Floods in China’s Henan province killed more than 300 people in the same month. A record-breaking heatwave in California was followed by the second-largest wildfire in the state’s history, destroying land and spewing toxins into the atmosphere.
