Record carbon dioxide levels are soaring and are driving global temperatures toward alarming levels, a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2019) Record carbon dioxide levels are soaring and are driving global temperatures toward alarming levels, a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday."The physical signs and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating as record greenhouse gas concentrations drive global temperatures towards increasingly dangerous levels," according to the organization.
The report states that carbon dioxide levels keep rising and the concentrations of greenhouse gas are expected to increase further in 2019.
"Climate science has achieved an unprecedented degree of robustness, providing authoritative evidence of global temperature increase and associated features such as accelerating sea level rise, shrinking sea ice, glacier retreat and extreme events such as heat waves," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas stressed.
The data shows that the majority of natural hazards in 2018 that affected some 62 million people were caused by extreme weather and climate. Of 17.7 million displaced people worldwide at least 2 million people had to relocated due to natural disasters.
Also 35 million people were affected by floods. Heat waves across Japan, Europe and the United States claimed the lives of at least 1600 people. Overall, the number of heatwave-exposed people reached alarming 125 million in the period between 2000 and 2016.
"Extreme weather has continued in the early 2019, most recently with Tropical Cyclone Idai, which caused devastating floods and tragic loss of life in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. It may turn out to be one of the deadliest weather-related disasters to hit the southern hemisphere," Taalas added.
Reacting to the report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the data "give cause for great concern."
The start of 2019 was also marked by record winter temperatures in Europe, heatwaves in Australia and unusual cold weather in North America, while the ice sheet in the Arctic and the Antarctic was below average.
