While the world was confined, the planet breathed.
This time is already far behind us: the concentrations in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases reached record levels in 2021, just like that of the oceans, indicated on Wednesday the American Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation (NOAA). .
Levels of methane, a gas that lasts only ten years but has a warming power 80 times greater than CO2 over a 20-year period, have also reached a record.
The agency notes a "significant" acceleration in the annual increase in methane levels in recent years.
Consequence of this warming?
For the tenth consecutive year, the mean sea level is also at a record high, 0.97 cm above the level of 1993, when satellite measurements began.
While greenhouse gas emissions have started to rise again after the Covid-19 crisis, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached an average of 441.7 parts per million (ppm), according to the annual report. American on the climate.
That is 2.3 ppm more than in 2020. And a record since the start of measurements and for at least a million years.
Every tenth of a degree counts
The planet has gained an average of nearly 1.2°C since the pre-industrial era, already causing a multiplication of extreme weather events, from heat waves to storms, including droughts and floods.
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And that's just the beginning.
While every tenth of a degree counts, the world is indeed heading towards a warming of +2.8°C by 2100 even if the commitments made by States under the Paris agreement are respected, according to the UN climate experts (IPCC).
More and more scientific evidence
“The data presented in this report is clear: we continue to see growing scientific evidence of the global impacts of warming that shows no signs of abating,” commented oceanographer Rick Spinrad, one of the scientists who led the investigation.
“With many communities hit by thousand-year-old floods, exceptional droughts and historic heat this year, it shows that the climate crisis is not a threat to come but something we must face today.
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