New Delhi (NVI): 2019 was the second warmest year on record, the past decade was the hottest in human history and January was the warmest January since 1850, according to the new report released by World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
”January was recorded as the warmest month of the year and the year 2019 ended with a global average temperature of 1.1°C above estimated pre-industrial levels, second only to the record set in 2016,” the report said.
In 2019, India was one of the countries including Australia, Japan, and Europe with a record-setting temperature that negatively affected health and well-being, the report suggests.
UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres while briefing on agency’s annual state of the Global climate 2019 report said, ”We have no time to lose if we are to avert climate catastrophe and this is a pivotal year for how we address the climate emergency.”
”Greenhouse gas concentrations are at the highest level in three million years when the earth temperature was as much as three degrees hotter and sea level some 15 metres higher, ” he said.
”Ocean heat is at a record level with temperatures rising at the equivalent of five Hiroshima bombs a second,” he said adding that we count the cost in human lives and livelihoods as droughts, wildfires, floods and extreme storms take their deadly toll.
More than 6.7 million new internal disaster displacements were recorded between January and June 2019, triggered by hydrometeorological events such as Cyclone Idai in Southeast Africa, Cyclone Fani in South Asia, Hurricane Dorian in the Caribbean, and flooding in Iran, the Philippines and Ethiopia. This number was forecast to reach close to 22 million in 2019, up from 17.2 million in 2018. Of all natural hazards, floods and storms contributed most to displacement, the report added.
