PARIS: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has stated in its record that this decade has been declared the hottest in history of global heat.
According to the WMO, average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods are almost certain to be the highest on record. 2019 is on course to be the second or third warmest year on record.
The WMO said that the global temperatures so far this year were 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average between 1850-1900.
That puts 2019 on course to be in the top three warmest years ever recorded, and possibly the hottest non-El Nino year yet.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a record level of 407.8 parts per million in 2018 and continued to rise in 2019. CO2 lasts in the atmosphere for centuries and the ocean for even longer, thus locking in climate change.
Sea level rise has accelerated since the start of satellite measurements in 1993 because of the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
Man-made emissions from burning fossil fuels, building infrastructure, growing crops and transporting goods mean 2019 is set to break the record for atmospheric carbon concentrations, locking in further warming.
Oceans, which absorb 90 percent of the excess heat produced by greenhouse gases, are now at their highest recorded temperatures.
The world’s seas are now a quarter more acidic than 150 years ago, threatening vital marine ecosystems upon which billions of people rely for food and jobs.
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n 2019, 38 percent of the global ocean area experienced what is classified as strong marine heatwaves, while 28 percent experienced moderate heat waves. Severe marine heatwaves were observed in large areas of the northeast Pacific ocean, too.
Such extreme heat conditions are taking an increasing toll not just on the flora and fauna on the planet, but on human beings too. While the overall human health and health systems have been affected, the greater impacts have been where there are aging populations, urbanisation, urban heat island effects, and health inequities.
Climate variability and extreme weather events have also been the key drivers in the recent rise in global hunger, food crises, and economic shocks and conflicts.
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The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 193 Member States and Territories. The Organization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
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