The world’s glaciers disappeared at an alarming rate last year, rescuing them is virtually a lost cause. According to the United Nations, as climate change indicators reached new highs.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded. With concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide reaching new highs.
Human, economic, environmental toll of climate change on the rise
According to the newest State of the Global Climate report, the last eight years have been the eight warmest on record. With sea level rise and ocean temperature reaching new highs. “Planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere” were driven by record amounts of greenhouse gases.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for “deeper, faster emission cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” As well as “massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience. Particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities that have contributed the least to the crisis.”
World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General, Prof. Petteri Taalas, said that amid rising greenhouse gas emissions and a changing climate. WMO highlights the importance of investing in climate monitoring and early warning systems. To help mitigate the humanitarian impacts of extreme weather.
Sea Level Rises
According to the paper, “glacier melt and sea level rise – which reached record levels in 2022 – will continue for thousands of years.” According to the WMO, “Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record, and melting of some European glaciers was literally off the charts.”
Sea level rise, which threatens the survival of coastal communities and, in some cases, entire countries, has been fueled not just by melting glaciers and ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, but also by heat-induced expansion of ocean volume. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, ocean warming has been “particularly high in the last two decades.”
