The fires continued to rage. Rivers were flooded. Ice melted. Droughts are baked. Storms were brewing. The temperatures rose. And people died.
Extreme weather has changed the face of climate change in 2021.
To accelerate climate change mitigation, world leaders will gather in Scotland. Scientists and government officials agree that it is not working as the world heats up and weather becomes more extreme. They don't have to look far back or far away for examples.
In Belgium, Germany and China, there have been devastating floods. Parts of the U.S. West, Greece, and the Arctic saw fire.
Heat waves were deadly and unprecedented. They drove temperatures up in the Northwest, even to 116°F (47° Celsius) in Portland, Oregon. Portland is known for its mild climate. New York City was paralysed by Hurricane Ida, which brought record-breaking rains.
These events would not have occurred without climate change caused by humans, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 18 weather and climate disasters occurred in the United States this year. These events resulted in losses of more than $1 billion per year. These 18 disasters resulted in 538 deaths and caused nearly $105 billion of damage. The average year saw only three of these disasters in the 1980s.
A report by AIR Worldwide, a global modeling company, estimates that extreme weather costs $320 billion each year around the globe. Only about one-third is insured.
Guterres stated that we now have five times as many recorded weather catastrophes than in 1970 and seven times more expensive, when referring to global totals. Even the most advanced countries are now vulnerable.
