Planet earth "has now warmed at least 1,1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels", he says the Washington Post, "and nearly every year for the past decade it's been near the top."
“On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) ranked 2022 as the sixth warmest year on record and reported that the 10 warmest have occurred since 2010…”.
Twenty-eight countries recorded record national annual averages last year, including Britain, Spain, France, Germany, China and New Zealand. Although 2022 was slightly cooler than other recent years, Berkeley Earth reported that 850 million people experienced the hottest year on record. Emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases have led to this rapid warming, scientists report.
"It's a big change for the planet. And this activity has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 50% compared to the rates we've had over the last million years," said Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at Berkeley Earth.
“There is often a debate between climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation. We no longer have the luxury of choice. We should do both two.... "
"Even if we get our act together and drastically reduce emissions to zero, the world is not going to cool for many centuries, it's just going to stop warming," he said.
Hausfather also told the Post that without La Niña cooling the Pacific Ocean, 2022 was the second-warmest year on record, behind 2020.
Other stats for 2022:
China suffered its worst drought ever has ever been recorded.
Europe experienced its worst drought in 500 years.
America had its third driest year on record, and at the end of October 63% of America was experiencing drought conditions – a 10-year high.
"The temperatures in India and Pakistan from March to May were so high that the sidewalks buckled."
