The UN confirms that we are destroying our planet: 2022 was worrying, deadly, expensive and extremely hot

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) concluded after months of analysis that 2022 really was as bad as it felt: the planet suffered floods, heat waves and drought, costing thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.

Besides, the

Ocean temperatures and acidity hit record levels, and ice in Antarctica and glaciers in the European Alps fell to record lows, according to the United Nations climate agency's State of the World's Climate report released Friday. on the eve of the Earth Day celebration.

Although they were higher before human civilization, sea levels and the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the air (which trap heat) reached the highest figures ever recorded.

The

that scientists use as a check on the world's health

(1.3 meters) in a year and, for the first time in history, no snow survived the summer melt season in Switzerland, according to the report.

A home in Rock Creek after floodwaters washed away a road and bridge in Red Lodge, Montana, on June 15, 2022. David Goldman/AP

The Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, stated that

The oceans can rise between 20 and 39 inches (another half meter to one meter). later in the century as more ice melts from ice sheets and glaciers and warmer water expands.

"Unfortunately, these negative trends may continue into the 2060s" despite efforts to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases due to pollution, he said.

So it's bad news, ”he lamented.

Last year was nearly the hottest on record, ranking fifth or sixth depending on measurement techniques.

But the

eight years have been the hottest on record.

And this despite an unusual third year of La Niña, a phenomenon that cools the Pacific Ocean and changes the weather around the world.

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Driest fall on record in California

South America suffered major droughts.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, recorded its first June on record without rain, and the Brazilian Amazon suffered its worst fires in a decade, with greenhouse gas emissions from those fires highest in at least 20 years .

In the United States, the drought caused losses of 22,000 million dollars, and California registered its driest January-October period in history.

More than 82% of the continental United States (excluding Alaska) experienced abnormally dry weather through October, the longest extent in the past 23 years, the WMO said.

Scientists associate the climate crisis with the increasing frequency of extreme phenomena, and in this sense, the WMO highlighted in the annual report that the hurricane season in the Americas, although it began later than other years, caused significant damage, especially in the month of September.

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That month,

after crossing Cuba, caused losses of 113,000 million dollars in Florida, being

the third most devastating

of which there is a record in the country, and 152 deaths, a figure that in that state had not caused a cyclone in 90 years.

Also in September, Hurricane Fiona caused flooding in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, before reaching Canada.

Record heat wave in Europe

The United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Switzerland, and New Zealand, had their hottest years ever recorded (there are data from the 1850s).

“In 2022, continued drought in East Africa, record rainfall in Pakistan, and record heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions of people, fueled food insecurity, fueled mass migration, and cost billions of dollars. in loss and damage,” Taalas explained.

A kayaker fishes on Lake Oroville as water levels remain low due to ongoing dry conditions in California. Ethan Swope / AP

According to the 55-page report, China's heat wave was the longest and most extensive on record, and its summer was not only the hottest on record, but broke the old record by more than 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius).

Africa's drought displaced more than 1.7 million people in Somalia and Ethiopia, and Pakistan's devastating floods — which at one point left a third of the country underwater — displaced some 8 million people, according to the report. .