In a new UN report says that climate change poses a much greater threat than the coronavirus.
«It is important that all the attention should be paid to the fight against this disease, did not distract us from the need to defeat climate change», — said Tuesday the Secretary-General of the United States, Antonio Guterres.
Despite the fact that in recent weeks harmful emissions into the atmosphere decreased in connection with reduction of intensity of tourist trips, Guterres noted that you can’t fight climate change with the help of the virus. About it reports USA TODAY.
The report confirmed that 2019 was one of the warmest in the history of mankind, and for the last decade — the hottest.
Last year ended with a global average temperature that was 1.1 ° C above the expected levels, second only to the record set in 2016, when a very strong temperature variation of the surface water in the Equatorial Pacific contributed to the increase in global temperature on the background of the General warming tendency.
«Concentrations of greenhouse gases are at their highest level for 3 million years when the Earth’s temperature was higher by 3 degrees and the sea level by 15 meters,» — said Guterres in a joint press conference with Secretary General of the world Meteorological Organization petteri taalas in the headquarters of the United Nations in new York.
The main greenhouse gases causing global warming are carbon dioxide and methane that are released when burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
«Given that the level of greenhouse gases continues to increase, the warming will continue. The recent forecast for the decade indicates that in the next 5 years is likely to be achieved a new annual record global temperature. It’s a matter of time», — said Taalas.
In 2020 January was the warmest in the entire history of observations. The winter was unusually mild in many parts of the Northern hemisphere. Smoke and contaminants from the devastating fires in Australia was sailed around the world, causing a surge of carbon dioxide emissions.
«The record temperature in Antarctica was accompanied by large-scale ice melting and rupture of the glacier, which will have consequences for sea-level rise», added Taalas.
Professor Brian Hoskins from Imperial College in London told the Guardian that «the report is a catalogue of the forecast in 2019, which is more extreme due to climate change and human suffering that accompanied it. This indicates a threat, which is more to our kind than any known virus, we should not be distracted from combat by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero as soon as possible».
