The concentration of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming in the atmosphere reached record levels in 2021, as did the level of ocean waters, according to what the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Monitoring Agency announced on Wednesday. While greenhouse gas emissions rose again after the easing of global restrictions related to the Covid-19 crisis, the level of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reached an average of 441.7 parts per million, according to the annual US climate report issued by the agency’s scientists. This reflects an increase of 2.3 parts per million compared to 2020 levels, a record number since records began, and for the first time in at least a million years.
Also, levels of methane, a gas that lives in the atmosphere for only a decade but has a warming force 80 times greater than that caused by carbon dioxide over a period of 20 years, reached record levels, according to the agency’s statement, which indicates a “significant” acceleration. in the annual increase of methane levels in recent years.
In terms of the consequences of climate warming, for the tenth year in a row, the average ocean water level also reached a record high, with an increase of 0.97 centimeters compared to the 1993 level, the year in which satellite measurements began.
The planet has warmed, on average, by about 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, causing a multiplication of extreme weather events, from heat waves to storms, droughts and floods.
And this is only the beginning. While every tenth of a degree Celsius of warming counts, the world is already heading for 2.8 degrees Celsius by 2100, even if commitments made under the Paris climate agreement are respected, according to experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. .
“The data presented in this report is clear: We continue to see increasing scientific evidence of global effects of warming that show no signs of abating,” said Rick Spinrad, Administrator of the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Monitoring Agency.
“With so many communities exposed to floods” and “exceptional droughts and historical heat this year, this shows that the climate crisis is not a future threat but a situation that we have to face today,” he added.
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