A long period of record heat around the world, an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a shocking bleaching of corals and a decrease in Arctic sea ice - all these factors are forcing world leaders to rush to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change, and most importantly - to start bringing it to life, according to the World meteorological organization.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon convened a special high-level meeting on September 21 to expedite the ratification or adoption of the December 2015 Paris Agreement. There are many reasons for this haste.
August 2016 was the hottest August on record, both on land and in the oceans. The current year has broken all existing temperature records.
The ice cover of the Arctic reached its minimum area on September 10, 2016 - 4.14 million sq. Km. According to statistics, this is the second result from the end in the 37-year history of satellite observations. The lowest ice spread was observed on September 17, 2012, when the ice cover occupied only 3.39 million square kilometers.
Even the maximum Arctic ice in March 2016 was the lowest on record. The Greenland ice sheet began to melt unusually early this year. Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer thaw season covers an area 40% less than in the late 1970s. and in the early 1980s.
Temperatures in August 2016 were 0.16 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record-breaking August. The last month of the past summer was 0.98 degrees Celsius warmer than average August from 1951 to 1980.
Many European countries experienced a heatwave in the first half of September. In Great Britain, for example, in Gravesand in Kent, the air temperature reached 34.4 degrees Celsius on September 13, which became the warmest September day since 1911. In Denmark the air warmed up to 29.9 degrees, in France the temperature was 8-12 degrees higher than the average September temperature.
Carbon dioxide concentrations have exceeded the symbolic 400 parts per million mark in the atmosphere this year. The average CO2 level in July 2016 was 401.72 ppm (in July 2015 the figure was 393.13 ppm).
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The ocean protects us from the effects of global warming, not only storing 9 0% of excess heat, but also taking up a third of anthropogenic emissions of CO2. A new study of the complex interactions between the ocean and the global climate will be explored at an international science conference in China. Scientists will focus on how the oceans are carrying the burden of global warming and how this affects the planet's climate future.