1.1 and 1.2 °C above the preindustrial average, recent data issued by NASA, together with Berkeley Earth and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows. According to the reports, the past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history, with 2021 being place sixth, despite a La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean which tends to cool the planet.
The figures, which were published by three of the world’s top climate research institutions, are setting off alarm bells, with over a dozen countries home to about 1.8 billion people having experienced their warmest years ever in 2021. July was reportedly the hottest month humanity has recorded, as one scientist described the heat dome which burned the Pacific Northwest last summer as “the most anomalous extreme heat event ever observed on Earth”.
Overall, 2021 ranked seventh-lowest for Northern Hemisphere snow cover and 10th-highest for number of named tropical storms. Nevertheless, NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt pointed out the fact that last year didn’t rewrite the history books only underscores the extent to which human greenhouse gas emissions have irrevocably changed the planet. This is owing to the fact that the not-so-bad years are dramatically worse than what could have been imagined a generation ago.
With roughly more than half of 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by humans being discharged in the 34 years since Hansen’s testimony, “There is no going back,” said Schmidt. “We are reaping what we’ve sown.”
