Unprecedented
extremes and warmest decade since modern measurements: grim report
from World Meteorological Organisation
Both
the northern and southern hemispheres experienced the warmest
temperatures for both land and sea
3
July, 2013
The
past 10 years were the warmest since the start of modern measurements
160 years ago and it was also a decade of unprecedented extremes in
the climate according to a report by the World Meteorological
Organisation (WMO).
Heatwaves
in Europe and Russia, hurricane Katrina in the United States,
tropical cyclones in South East Asia, droughts in the Amazon,
Australia and East Africa and floods in Pakistan were all features of
the last decade indicating a shift in the climate, the WMO said.
Both
the northern and southern hemispheres experienced the warmest
temperatures for both land and sea, puncturing the myth that global
warming has ended. At the same time, there was a rapid melting of
Arctic sea ice and an acceleration in the loss of ice from the
massive ice sheets of Greenland and the Antarctic.
As
a result of this widespread melting and the thermal expansion of sea
water, global mean sea levels rose about 3 millimetres (mm) per year,
about double the observed 20th century trend of 1.6 mm per year.
Global sea level averaged over the decade was about 20 cm higher than
that of 1880, said the report.
"A
decade is the minimum possible timeframe for meaningful assessments
of climate change," said Michel Jarraud, the WMO's secretary
general.
"WMO's
report shows that global warming was significant from 1971 to 2010
and that the decadal rate of increase between 1991-2000 and 2001-2010
was unprecedented. Rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases are changing our climate, with far reaching implications for
our environment and our oceans, which are absorbing both carbon
dioxide and heat," Mr Jarraud said.
The
WMO report said atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases
continued to rise. Global-average concentrations of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere rose to 389 parts per million in 2010, an increase of
39 per cent since the start of the industrial era in 1750.
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