Stop ‘climate change’ denial!

East to West and North to South – Australia burning to California burning and Arctic glacier melting to Antarctica melting of ice sheets – is climate change the reason? The answer still awaits global acceptance. However, the climate report card is ‘declared’ and we are ‘exposed’ once more even as we remain in the state of ‘climate change’ denial. The report – The State of the Climate in 2019 – based on contributions from more than 520 scientists from 60 countries, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information was published by the American Meteorological Society.

As a matter of fact, last few years, different parts of countries – specifically in the US, Europe, Brazil, Japan, Australia and India – witnessed ‘vagaries’ of climate, weather and natural calamities – heat waves, wildfires, floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones and abnormally hot days. The State of the Climate in 2019, reportedly, presents updated details of how 2019 continued to witness climatic extremes and weather conditions that prove the grim reality of ‘climate change’. It provides data and evidences collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments located across the world.

One of the touch points of 2019’s climate – The Indian Ocean

“The body of water, cleaved into distinct halves marked by the strongest Indian Ocean dipole in more than two decades, behaved as something of a center of gravity in this report, as many of the extremes and related phenomena seemed to emanate from it. The strength of its signal was seen throughout the system and throughout this report: in nuisance flooding and unusual chlorophyll concentrations in and around the basin; in unprecedented tropical cyclone activity in the Arabian Sea; as historic fire and drought in Australia; and in back-to-back devastating tropical cyclones in southeast Africa.”

“The decade that just past has been the hottest recorded globally. The year 2019 was among the three warmest years since records began in the mid-to-late 1800s. Each decade since 1980 has been successively warmer than the preceding decade, with 2010-19 being around 0.2°C warmer than the previous 2000-09,” – The State of the Climate in 2019 report.

What the State of the Climate in 2019 report says?

Ø Year 2019 was among the three hottest years since records began in the mid-1800s. Only 2016, and for some datasets 2015, were warmer than 2019.

Ø The report details that global temperatures rose by 0.39 degrees Celsius over the long-term average, compared with a 0.07 degrees Celsius rise per decade all the way back to 1880. The average sea surface temperature in 2019 was the second highest on record, surpassed only by 2016. The rate at which average temperatures are rising decade-on-decade is gathering pace.

Ø In 120 years of records, surface air temperatures for the Arctic were the second highest.  In the Antarctic, 2019 was the second warmest year for the continent since 1979.

Ø The burning of fossil fuels in our cars, airplanes, and factories releases heat-trapping pollution into the air, warming up our planet. The warming influence of the major greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere – including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide – was 45% higher than in 1990.

Ø Global carbon dioxide concentrations, which represent the bulk of the gases' warming power, rose during 2010. That was the highest in the modern 61-year measurement record as well as the highest ever measured in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.

Ø For the 32nd straight year, glaciers continue to melt at a concerning rate. Observations of glaciers and ice caps from 2018 and 2019 show regional variations in mass change and a continuing trend of significant ice loss throughout the Arctic and especially in Alaska and Arctic Canada.

Ø  Antarctic net sea ice extent was below the 1981–2010 average for all days of the year. In March, when Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent, thin, first-year ice comprised 77% of all ice, compared to about 55% in the 1980s.

Ø Melting of glaciers, ice sheets and warming oceans account for the rising global sea levels. Sea levels rose to a new record high for the eighth consecutive year in 2019 and hit a record high for the 27 years since satellite recordings began, having risen about 3.4 inches in that time above the 1993 average.

Ø India experienced one of its heaviest summer monsoon rains since 1995 despite a delayed and suppressed monsoon during June. In the US, rapid snowmelt in the spring, as well as heavy and frequent precipitation in the first half of the year, contributed to extensive flooding in the Midwest throughout spring and summer, notably the Mississippi and Missouri basins.

Ø Globally, the second half of 2019 saw an increase in the land area experiencing drought to higher, but not record, levels by the end of the year. Dry conditions persisted over large parts of western South Africa, in some locations having continued for approximately seven years. Antecedent dry conditions and extreme summer heat waves pushed most of Europe into extreme drought.  However, the rate of photosynthesis increased in eastern China with vegetation growth due to major human changes in land use.

Ø Past emissions of chlorine-containing substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have substantially contributed to the chemical destruction and loss of ozone in the atmosphere that has led to increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation with adverse effects on human health and earth’s environment. In September, Antarctica experienced a dramatic upper-atmosphere warming event that led to the smallest ozone hole since the early 1980s.

Above findings are indicators of the changing climate across the globe and call upon countries to engage in implementing effective policies to combat climate change crisis and its impacts.

- Singh Rakesh Ranjan 

    Freelance Journalist