Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached new record levels, despite the impact of Covid
This was revealed by the new annual report on the state of the climate of NOOA: "In the last year, a global average annual concentration of 414.7 parts per million (ppm) has been reached, 2.3 ppm more than in 2020".
Greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere have reached the highest levels ever recorded, with concentrations that have grown further despite efforts to reduce emissions and the impact of blockades due to Covid. The new annual report on the state of the climate of the National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and based on contributions from over 530 researchers in over 60 countries.
The annual review, which provides the most comprehensive update on Earth's climate indicators, major weather events, and other data collected from environmental monitoring stations and instruments located on earth, seas, ice, and space, highlights how the data clearly indicate that "we continue to see more compelling scientific evidence that climate change has a global impact and shows no signs of slowing down - said the oceanographer and American government official Rick Spinrad, administrator of NOAA -.
With many communities affected by annual floods, exceptional droughts, and historic heatwaves this year, the data shows that the climate crisis is not a future threat, but something we face today as we work to build a climate-ready nation - and a world - that is resilient to climatic extremes”.
The record of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other numbers of the climate crisis
The most worrying data in the report relate to the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - each of which reached new record levels in 2021. In particular, the global annual average concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere was 414.7 parts per million (ppm), 2.3 ppm more than in 2020, marking the highest level ever measured in modern observation records and the highest in the last million years based on paleoclimatic estimates.
The annual average concentration of metano (CH4) in the atmosphere was the highest ever recorded, with an annual increase of 18 parts per billion (ppb) which is the highest since the start of measurements, a significant increase since 2014. The same goes for nitrous oxide (N2O)whose annual increase of 1.3 ppb was the third highest since 2001, contributing to a global annual mean atmospheric concentration of 334.3 ppb.
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Consequently, it also continued the global warming trend, with annual surface temperatures of 0.21-0.28 ° C above the 1991-2020 average placing 2021 among the six warmest years since recordings began, between the mid to late 1800s. the past seven years (2015-2021) were the seven hottest years on record. To this are added the ocean warming and sea level rise which were the highest ever recorded.
According to the report's data, global ocean heat content, measured from the ocean surface at depths of more than 6,000 feet (about 1,830 meters), reached new highs in 2021, while the global mean sea level set a new record, coming to be about 97 millimeters higher than the 1993 average, the year that marks the beginning of the satellite measurement record. Finally, an activity well above the average for tropical cyclones was also reported, with 97 tropical storms in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, well above the 1991-2020 average of 87.
