he World Meteorological Organization today issued a warning as global leaders are about to meet to discuss combating global warming: things are bad now, and are getting worse. From the Associated Press:
"Earth’s warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations.
'The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos,' United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. 'We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action -- ambitious, credible climate action.'
In its annual state of the climate report, the United Nations’ weather agency said that sea level rise in the past decade was double what it was in the 1990s and since January 2020 has jumped at a higher rate than that. Since the decade began, seas are rising at 5 millimeters a year (.2 inches) compared to 2.1 millimeters (.08 inches) in the 1990s.
The last eight years have been the warmest on record, the WMO said in a report that didn’t break new ground but was a collection of recent weather trends, data and impacts in one central place." (our emphasis)
The report notes that the only reason records weren't broken over the last several years was an unprecedented 3-year La Niña weather system that modulated the temperatures.
Beginning today and going through November 18, over 120 heads of state from around the world will be meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP 27) to discuss how to turn the rise in carbon emissions around from their present course. Sadly, many of the heads of state are addicted to fossil fuels or have economies that are tied to petrodollars and will only be paying lip service to "goals" and "targets" at best.
(image: Depiction of a future Lower Manhattan flooded. American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
