WMO horror stories
If you’re a fan of horror stories, the World Meteorological Organisation is not the first place you might think of checking out. But believe me, it is publishing some terrifying stuff.
Every year the WMO publishes a report called “Statement on the State of the Global Climate”. These reports are quite different from those published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the IPCC. The IPCC reports tread so carefully, they almost trip over themselves as they watch where to put their feet. This isn’t really their fault. Their summary reports are airbrushed so thoroughly by their government handlers that even the most alarming observations of the hundreds of scientists who work on the text are weakened to the point where they seem to be little more than mild precautionary advice.
Not so the WMO reports. They lay it out exactly as they see it. For the WMO, it is what it is. The latest report looks clear-eyed at the state of the global climate in 2019. Here ‘s what they found :
- The annual increases in the three main greenhouse gases were larger than the increases in the previous year, and above the 10-year averaged growth rates. In other words, the emissions that drive the changing climate are accelerating.
- As a result, 2019 was very probably the second warmest year on record. Global mean temperatures are already about 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. So we are well on the way to going way past 1.5°C of warming—a threshold that, once exceeded, the IPCC predicts will bring devastating environmental impacts.
- The past five years 2015 – 2019 were the five warmest on record. Since the 1980s, each successive decade has been warmer than any preceding once since 1850.
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