Earth Day, UN alarm: "Temperatures on the rise, the game is now lost for glaciers"

April 22 is World Earth Day , an opportunity to celebrate our planet and take stock of its state of health.

And the data provided by the United Nations , unfortunately, give cause for concern. Public enemy number one remains, of course, climate change.

In fact, the latest report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on the state of the climate sounds the alarm – yet another – for the rise in temperatures and sea levels, as well as for the melting of glaciers.

According to the dossier, global average temperatures over the past 8 years were the highest on record, and in 2022 the temperature was 1.15 degrees above the 1850-1900 average.

Furthermore, the report warns, Antarctic sea ice has reached its lowest level ever recorded and the melting of some European glaciers has literally broken all records. And the negative trend "could continue until the 2060s", stated the secretary general of the WMO, Petteri Taalas, in a press conference, for whom in fact "the game is already lost".

And then, due to the record levels of greenhouse gases, "climate change has therefore continued its advance in 2022: droughts, floods and heat waves have affected all continents and have cost many billions of dollars", writes the WMO . Suffice it to say that in Switzerland, 6% of the volume of glaciers was lost between 2021 and 2022 - and a third between 2001 and 2022.

For the first time in history, no snow survived the summer season, even at the highest measurement sites.

Record-breaking heatwaves hit Europe during the summer, and China experienced the largest and longest-lasting heatwave since national records began.

During the year, according to the report, dangerous events related to climate and weather conditions caused new population displacements. The report also shows how climate change is influencing recurring events in nature, such as tree blossoming or bird migration.

For example, Japan's cherry blossom bloom in 2021, the full bloom date was March 26, the earliest since the date is documented. In 2022, the flowering date was April 1st.

For the WMO secretary general, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate continues to change, "populations around the world continue to be seriously affected by extreme weather and climate events," Taalas said, mentioning the drought in East Africa, record rainfall in Pakistan and record heatwaves in China and Europe.

In this gloomy context, the WMO underlined the positive development constituted by the improvement of technologies that make the transition to renewable energy cheaper and more accessible than ever.

«We have the tools, the knowledge and the solutions. But we need to speed up the pace,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for Earth Day, scheduled for tomorrow. “We need accelerated climate action with deeper and faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” he added.

(Unioneonline/lf)