According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “concentrations of greenhouse gases, the three main ones (carbon dioxide (CD), methane and nitrous oxide) reached high records ever seen in 2021”.
The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest one ever reported.
Glaciers reduced their average thickness by more than 1.3 meters from October 2021 to October 2022, the report specified.
“Antarctica´s sea ice decreased to 1.92 million square kilometers on February 25, 2022, the lowest level on record, and the rest of the year was continuously below average,” the source noted.
WMO pointed out that the ocean warming rate has been high over the past 20 years and the global mean sea level continued to rise in 2022 to a new record high.
In East Africa, drought wreaked havoc, with below-average rainfall in five consecutive rainy seasons, something that had never popped in the last 40 years.
Europe faced unprecedented heat waves in summer, killing over 15,000 people in Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Portugal.
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