The International Meteorological Organization of the UN declared that protecting glaciers was now essentially futile. In the past ten years, sea levels have risen at a rate of 4.62 millimetres annually on average, according to the annual report. According to a UN climate report released on Friday, just in time for Environment Day, the world’s glaciers melted dramatically quickly last year, causing sea levels to rise twice as quickly as they did two decades ago.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which released the data, claimed that the years between 2015 and 2022 were the warmest on record. More than 15,000 people died as a result of the summer heatwave that swept through Europe.
According to the report, certain European glaciers were melting at a “off the charts” rate, shedding as much as 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) of average thickness between October 2021 and October 2022.
The WMO Secretary-General, Petteri Taalas, said at a press conference that “that’s awful news” since “we have already lost this melting of glaciers game and sea level rise game.” This is because there have already been significant emissions of greenhouse gases, which have caused water levels to increase for “thousands of years.”
The last eight years have seen the greatest mean temperatures on record, despite the La Nina cooling weather phenomenon’s failure to stop the temperature increases.
The peak of greenhouse gas levels occurred in 2021. Globally, there were 415.7 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is 149% above pre-industrial levels. Nitrous oxide was at 124% while methane was at 262%.
Data from 2022 indicated that they went on to grow.
Ocean temperatures were also the highest on record. According to the WMO, maritime heatwaves were experienced on 58% of ocean surfaces. The report’s executive summary stated that “almost 90% of the energy trapped in the climate system by greenhouse gases travels into the ocean, partly attenuating even higher temperature increases but posing hazards to marine ecosystems.”
Even with effective mitigation measures, Taalas anticipated that the extreme weather patterns would persist into the 2060s because of the harm already done. But he said that with enough work, things might then turn out for the best. The good news, he continued, is that we might be able to reverse this downward trend and even stay below the 1.5 degrees (Celsius) limit.
