Scientists from NASA and the National Office of Oceans and Atmosphere (NOAA) warned today of the immediacy of climate change after presenting data that confirm that the last five years has been the warmest since 1880.
“The five warmest years have been the last five years.
We are no longer talking about a situation in which global warming is something of the future. It is now, “said Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA group that made the joint report with NOAA, in a telephone press conference.
The whole of the last five years has been the warmest global level in modern history since 1880, according to these data, which also revealed that the world temperature in 2018 was the fourth warmest ever recorded, being placed only behind the years 2016 (the warmest), 2015 and 2017.
The global temperature during the past year was 0.83 degrees centigrade above the 20th century average, which means that last year it was the 42nd consecutive year, since 1977, which registered a global temperature above the average.
In this sense, Schmidt argued that 2018 “was once again an extremely hot year within a long-term trend of global warming.”
“The long-term impacts of global warming are already being felt in coastal flooding, heat waves, intense rainfall and changes in ecosystems,” explained the NASA expert.
In its report, NOAA underlined that nine of the 10 warmest years in the world have occurred since 2005.
The document also highlighted that a large part of Europe, New Zealand and Middle East regions and Russia registered high temperatures on land; while areas of the South Pacific and the North and South Atlantic also suffered maximum temperatures on the sea surface.
Specifically, the temperature of 2018 in Europe was the highest recorded in the analyzes of both institutions, with 1.78 degrees Celsius above the average.
According to its records, the annual temperature of the Old Continent increased at an average rate of 0.12 degrees per decade since 1910. However, it has almost quadrupled to 0.43 degrees since 1981.
For its part, the United States had the fourteenth warmest year in history in 2018, but the data that stood out in the country was that of precipitation, since it averaged more than 87 centimeters of volume, 12 above the average, placing 2018 as the third year with the most rain in the last 124 years.
During the 21st century, the difference between the global average temperature of the Earth and the ocean has reached new historical highs up to five times (2005, 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016).
Throughout the first hundred years of NOAA’s registration (from 1880 to 1980), a new average temperature record was established every 13 years. However, for the most recent period, between 1981 and 2018, the frequency of a new record has increased to once every three years.
Global warming has caused, among other issues, the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic.
The average annual extent of sea ice in the Arctic was about 1,300 million square kilometers and in Antarctica about 1,800 kilometers, that is, the second lowest records since 1979.
The results of the annual report of NASA and NOAA, whose publication has been delayed due to the 35-day partial closure of the Administration, coincide with the findings of the European Copernicus Service of Climate Change and other research centers. (EFEUSA) .-
