The year began with a count of the damage from the extreme weather events of 2020. California set a new annual wildfire record with more than 1.7 million hectares burned, and the year was the hottest on record. The US's Noaa and the UK Met Office both put it in second place.
The UN climate summit would be held in Glasgow in November of 2021, but there were no signs of being much better. The month of January was the warmest on record in Africa, while Malaysia was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 There were fears that Istanbul would run out of water after the most severe dry spell in a decade.
People are evacuated from Sementeh, near Lanchang in Malaysia's Pahang state. A picture of Mohd Rasfan.
There were some small steps of progress on other fronts. Within hours of becoming president, Joe Biden announced that the US would rejoin the Paris agreement. StoreDot, an Israeli company, announced that they had produced the first fully charged car batteries in a Chinese factory.
We have already waited too long to deal with the climate crisis and we can't wait any longer. It is time to act, we see it with our own eyes, we feel it, and we know it in our bones.
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Joe Biden is the Vice President.
Farmers in the UK led a plan to bring white-tailed eagles to the east of the country.
February.
The internationally renowned scientist James Hansen waded into the UK's row over plans for a new coalmine in Cumbria, saying it showed "contemptuous disregard for the future of young people". A few days earlier, nine activists had announced that they were in a tunnel under London's Euston station, dug secretly beneath a tent, in order to protest against the high-speed rail link the UK government was in the process of building.
Protesters wrote messages on canary-shaped paper outside the Home Office during a demonstration against a coalmine. Alastair Grant/AP
The most costly winter storm event on record was caused by a historic wave of winter weather that hit the eastern US and Texas, with nearly 10 million people without power at the storm's peak and millions without water after pipes burst.
10 orangutans were returned to the wild after being rescued. The apes were flown deep into the forest.
The scientists found a reptile that is believed to be the smallest on the planet. Brookesia nana has a body the size of a sunflower seed.
March.
The world's oldest Laysan albatross, a female named Wisdom, is on a national wildlife refuge. The Pacific Region is home to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The news that dolphins had come to play in the East River was a big deal in New York. Wisdom the Laysan albatross, the oldest wild bird in history, hatched another chick in the Midway Atoll wildlife refuge in the North Pacific. Wisdom has 888-405-7720 888-405-7720
Thousands of people were forced to flee rising waters in New South Wales, and the insurance industry was facing millions of dollars in claims, as Australia was being hit by horrendous floods. The region was also battling a mouse plague, with horrifying footage showing the ground moving as the rodents took over.
In the US, Deb Haaland was confirmed as the first ever indigenous cabinet secretary. China has announced that it will build windfarms with a total capacity of almost 100GW in 2020, an increase of over 50% from 2019. Climate Action 100 found that only a few of the big polluters were taking serious action on climate change.
April.
The German supreme constitutional court found that the government's climate protection measures were insufficient to protect future generations. The young activists who brought the case called it a huge win for the climate movement. In the UK, the coroner who oversaw the sad case of a young girl who died after an asthma attack published a report which called for the lowering of legally binding maximum levels of particulate air pollution.
Activists from Fridays for Future are in Berlin. The person is Fabian Sommer/AP.
The US promised to cut its greenhouse gases by 50% by the year 2030. The country will double financial aid to other countries. Is it enough? John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy, said no after striking a deal to cooperate with China on climate change. It is the best we can do and proves we can move.
The changes came against the background of a troubling development, as scientists concluded that the warm Atlantic current linked to severe and abrupt changes in the climate in the past was now at its weakest in at least 1,600 years. The current is known as the Amoc.
Huge sandstorms in China turned the skies over Beijing yellow for several days, while a tropical storm brought heavy rain and strong winds to Western Australia.
May.
A Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of 2030. The decision came just as the International Energy Agency published Net Zero by 2050, a landmark report which stated that exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields would have to stop this year and no new coal-fired power stations could be built if the world wanted to stay within safe limits of global
A group of people embrace outside the federal court of Australia. In September 2020 eight young Australians and a nun sought an injunction to stop the environment minister from approving the Vickery coalmine extension project. James Gourley is the photographer.
The federal court in Australia found that the environment minister had a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis, in what lawyers said was the first time in the world such a duty of care had been recognised.
In France, the minister for ecological transition delighted and appalled people with the announcement that the new climate law would take meat off the menu once a week in schools.
Turkey was hit by a blanket of mucus-like stuff that was silting up the coast, created as a result of warm temperatures and agricultural run-off. In California, the governor declared a drought emergency in 41 of the state's 58 counties after a short and late rainy season.
June.
The west coast of North America experienced one of the most powerful and extraordinary heatwaves in history in June. The heatwave was caused by a dome of high pressure that extended from California to Canada, where it broke all previous records. The governor of Washington state said this was the beginning of a permanent emergency.
The world saw hot temperatures. Africa and New Zealand had the warmest June ever recorded.
Smoke billows from the Bechatw power station. Kacper Pempel.
Efforts to fight back continued. Poland will shut down Bechatw in 2036. The City of London said it would be building a heat network and digging holes for a low-carbon heating system.
The ship carrying toxic chemicals caught fire and sank off the coast of Sri Lanka. The herd of elephants had trekked 300 miles into the city of Kunming.
July.
Death Valley in California recorded a temperature of 54.4C in July, making it the hottest July on record.
People visit the unofficial temperature at the Visitor Center on July 11. David Becker.
India, China, and Europe were hit by floods as the US heatwave and droughts worsened. The west coast of India saw 115 deaths due to a year's worth of rain in a single day. Hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes after videos showed the waters rising in the subways. In Germany, rows broke out when it was revealed that a flood early-warning system had failed to work, after more than a hundred people were killed by flooding.
The Australian government continued to fight attempts to have the Great Barrier Reef declared in danger, with local politicians saying they feared for the impact the declaration would have on jobs. In the UK, the water company Southern Water was fined a record £90m after a six-year investigation found evidence that it had deliberately poured sewage into the sea in order to avoid the cost ofUpgrading infrastructure.
The amount of ice that fell in a single day enough to cover the entire state of Florida was new data that showed the melting of the island.
August.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that climate change was caused by human activities and warned that some of the impacts were now inevitable.
The Greek prime minister described the fires in the Mediterranean as the country's "greatest ecological disaster in decades" as the heat continued.
A local resident holds an empty water hose. A picture of Angelos Tzortzinis.
More than a million people were evacuated from their homes in Japan, and also in Turkey, Tennessee, and the US, where a record-breaking deluge swept through homes and roads. The highest point of the ice sheet was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
When solar power overtook coal in Australia for the first time, a Swedish company shipped the world's first customer delivery of "green steel", made without using coal.
In the UK, the Extinction Rebellion blocked London Bridge and Oxford Circus, as well as the entrances to the City of London and the Science Museum, in protest of Shell's sponsorship deal.
September.
The promises from global leaders to tackle climate change were meaningless, as carbon emissions were still on track to rise by the year 2030. The summer of record-breaking fires, heatwaves and floods put politicians under increasing pressure to improve their offers. A US/EU deal to reduce methane emissions felt good.
Climate activists block the anticlockwise side of the M25 near Ockham. Mark Kerrison is a reporter for Alamy Live News.
Insulate Britain demonstrators began sitting on the motorway to demand climate action in the form of insulation for the country's housing stock. In Scotland, as preparations sped up, one man built an ark on a hillside, telling the planning committee that it wasn't permanent in the same way that humanity wouldn't be if we didn't take action on the climate.
New data showed that the wildfires were releasing record-breaking amounts of carbon dioxide. Europe and China were facing an energy crisis, with high gas prices and pressure on electricity and coal supplies.
October.
A $233m fund was announced by China at the Kunming conference on biodiversity.
The development of an ecological civilisation will be our guide to coordinate the relationship between man and nature.
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The president is Xi Jinping.
Australia, one of the countries most notorious for holding out against climate action, published a plan for how it would reduce carbon emissions, but it was called a scam.
The Green Middle East Initiative Summit was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Green Initiative.
There were signs of change at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit, with the United Arab Emirates announcing that they will be hosting Cop28 in two years.
The first ever battery-powered car to top Europe's sales chart was aTesla. In the UK, the government was forced to place a duty on water companies to reduce sewage discharges because of a near rebellion.
Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, gained global attention when he held out against his own party for huge cuts to President Biden's climate change plans. It looked as if Biden would have to go to Cop26 with no progress at home.
November.
Cop26 was under way after two years of delays, worries, criticisms, and negotiations. The world leaders gathered for the first two days and were told by David Attenborough to be motivated by hope rather than fear. The UK's prime minister, Boris Johnson, put a damper on the event by making his speech and then hopping into a private jet to travel to London.
Hundreds of the world's biggest banks and pension funds have committed themselves to limiting greenhouse gas emissions in the first week of the UN Climate Change Conference.
The closing speech by Alok Sharma was applauded by the crowd. Jeff J Mitchell.
The president of the summit had persuaded countries to sign a deal that included a mechanism that would allow them to upgrade their emission reduction plans in time for the next Cop in Egypt. The loss and damage facility that most of the world had asked for, to help developing countries pay for the impacts of the climate crisis already being felt, was not included in the deal.
British Columbia in Canada was hit by rain storms that broke up roads and led to a state of emergency.
The white sperm whale, a rare animal in the world, was seen in the ocean off Jamaica.
December.
In the middle of the month, the World Meteorological Organization announced that the summer of 2020 had seen a new all-time high in the temperature of the Russian town of Verkhoyansk.
In 24 hours, up to 180mm of rain fell in some parts of the state. The UK was hit by two storms. Heavy rains caused flooding and displacement in Iraq. The most devastating tornado event in Kentucky's history, with at least 70 deaths, was followed by record-breaking temperatures and snow by the end of the month.
A family walks past a destroyed church. Brandon Bell is pictured.
EO Wilson warned many times that humans could not continue to use the land and resources of the planet in the way they did. The Biologist was involved in controversy at times. His warning that we live in a delusional state if we don't understand the burden that the western way of life imposes on Earth rings true even now.
The world would return to a state of equilibrium that existed 10,000 years ago if mankind were to disappear. The environment would collapse if insects disappeared.
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EO Wilson is a Biologist.
