Global warming in 2021: the alarm signals are everywhere!

A new year is about to end. A year in which the Earth has sent us alarm bells more than ever. Let’s take a few minutes to remember some of the most significant extreme weather events of the year.

The increase in extreme weather events

In June, a wave of heat extreme was setting temperature records in Canada. 49.6 ° C in Lytton! Never before had such heat been experienced above 45 ° north latitude!

In July, torrential rains fell in Germany and Belgium. Houses swept away, but above all, hundreds of lives washed away. And always the same manager: the anthropogenic global warming.

Also in July, the Bootleg Fire ravaged the east coast of the United States. With such violence that he created his own weather report. the Dixie Fire became, meanwhile, the second largest fire forest of modern California history. Victims among the populations. And millions oftrees and extinct animals. Thousands of giant sequoias, in particular. Centuries-old trees – sometimes millennia – out of the ordinary which could not withstand the exceptional intensity of these fires despite their very thick bark.

The United States was not the only one to suffer the horrors of the flames. Greece, Turkey or even Siberia. Millions of hectares of forest gone up in smoke. Smokes that stretch across the globe. Including up to the North Pole. With the consequence, a peak of emissions of CO₂. And, according to the Copernicus monitoring serviceatmosphere, total emissions over the year of more than 1,700 megatonnes of carbon.

Still in July, torrential rains hit China. The equivalent of a year of precipitation that fell in just three days. Making several hundred victims.

In September, a storm was hitting the northeast coast of the United States hard. Torrential rains, floods lightning, significant damage and too many victims. “The climate crisis is our gate “, then commented Joe Biden, the American president.

In December, more than 50 tornadoes swept across the United States. A phenomenon of rare violence. Almost entire cities have been wiped off the map. And debris sometimes rising up to 9,000 meters above sea level. Only a few days later, an impressive dry storm, a Dust Bowl, with gusts of more than 170 kilometers per hour.

An impressive amount of extreme weather events for a single year. Disasters which will have cost the trifle of 221 billion euros. This is almost 25% more than what extreme weather events cost in 2020!

IPCC, an unequivocal report

And in July 2021, a study showed that since the beginning of this century, extreme temperatures have been the cause, directly or indirectly, of some 5 million premature deaths per year. A figure that could increase sharply by the middle or the end of our century.

So many examples that sadly support the 6^e report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC ) published in the middle of this summer 2021. It clearly shows that the weatheris changing faster than scientists expected. And that it is entirely the fault of men. He also confirms, among other things, that in this warming world, we must expect more frequent and violent extreme events . At the beginning of 2022, the IPCC should publish other of this work which will present in detail, the expected impacts as well as possible solutions.

The draft which had filtered during the month of last June exposed a critical situation. With a warming of +1.1 ° C already, the first effects are being felt. The extreme weather phenomena mentioned above. But also a drop in the production and yields of certain cereals and other foodstuffs. A deterioration in the health of populations due to the proliferation of diseases. A disrupted water cycle. And a rise in sea level.

Arctic and Antarctic in the same boat

Again, faster than the researchers thought. 20 centimeters already since 1900 and at a rate that has tripled over the past 10 years. Mainly involved: melting ice-creams. Because throughout the year, scientists have also alerted us to this point. On the side ofArctic just as much as that of Antarctica, the situation is critical.

In the North Pole region, what researchers call “The last ice zone” – a region which concentrates the thickest and oldest ice in the Arctic – now appears threatened. In summer, its area has been halved since the early 1980s. Sad news for the walrusesand the polar bears , in particular, for which this “Last ice zone” constitutes a refuge.

Antarctica, for its part, is said to be close to its tipping point. If we do not manage to change the trajectory of our emissions, it would in fact be reached as early as 2060. And scientists are announcing irreversible consequences on the scale of several centuries.

Only a few weeks ago, a team confirmed that the region could be going through a change. With more and moregiant icebergsthat stand out from the ice floe. And all of Antarctica which threatens to collapse. In just a decade …

COP26, insufficient commitment

In September, the report United in Science 2021 coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that we are now on the path to a warming of + 2.7 ° C. With consequences which will obviously be catastrophic. ” Hurry up “, then alerted Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN).

At the end of the year, representatives of 200 countries met in Glasgow (Scotland) to find an agreement that would finally speed up the fight against global warming. Many have pledged to reach the carbon neutrality. But on the occasion of this 26^e COP (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), some, led by China and India, have bitterly defended the interests of fossil fuels . From coal especially. And finally, the adopted text clearly lacks ambition.

While there was no question, throughout COP26, of limiting warming to +1.5 ° C, the compromise found does not ultimately even ensure that the objective set by the Agreement is respected. from Paris. That of limiting global warming to + 2 ° C! However, scientists are now convinced of this, matterof climate, every tenth of a degree counts. It influences the extremes, both of temperature and of precipitation. And push back the limit of areas that will be submerged by melting ice, for example. It will be more difficult and more expensive to adapt to a warming of + 2 ° C than to a warming of +1.5 ° C.

Jean Jouzel did not hesitate, at the beginning of December 2021, to talk about the failure of the COP26 on the objectives of reducing emissions of greenhouse gas. But nevertheless underlined positive progress concerning the deforestation, taking into account methane and transport. According to climatologist, the commitments should quite simply … be multiplied by three!

Over the past year, some good news nonetheless. Like the one from British researchers who argue that there are also positive tipping points , transformational changes that could help us win the war on global warming.

More generally, scientists today stress the need not only to want “Relieve the symptomsof global warming “, but to tackle its root cause: the overexploitation of the earth . “To ensure the durabilityof our civilization. “