GENEVA — The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.
"More bad news for the planet," the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement along with its latest annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It's one of several reports released in recent days looking at several aspects of humanity's struggle with climate change in the run up to the U.N.'s latest climate conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war Goats and Soda The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war
Of the three main types of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — the biggest jump from 2020 to 2021 was in methane, whose concentrations in the air came in with the biggest year-on-year increase since regular measurements began four decades ago, WMO said.
"The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
Methane is more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, but doesn't stay in the atmosphere nearly as long as carbon dioxide and there's 200 times more carbon dioxide in the air than methane. Over a 20-year time-period, a molecule of methane traps about 81 times the heat as a molecule of carbon dioxide but over a century it goes down to trapping 28 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Every year I get a bit creeped out by the dull skies and the bright orange moon that sometimes happens when smoke from the Western Wildfires drifts east.
The harvest moon is such an eerie orange color this year. 🌕
While all the activist types are pontificating about their electronic cars and solar panels, the planet continues to bake as more and more carbon becomes part of the atmosphere. Denialism is as popular on the left as on the right. We’re told we should be scared for the future but not today, yet it’s tossed around more and more just about virtue signaling and green consumerism and patronage then any real solution.
Myself I’m increasingly alarmed as I see where this is going. I wish I could find ways to be more resilient and protective of my own life by owning land and equipment to protect it. Because I’m not at all convinced government is going to protect us from climate change and waiting on government for a hand out after a disaster is a very risky proposition. Sometimes the politicians help but often they dodge responsibility with red tape.
it happens in 2026, then we can celebrate America's 250th Anniversary and 1.5 degrees warming the same year. Then it can be really wild party, just make sure to have plenty of ice in your drink to keep it fresh, as it might be a hot summer.
MUMBAI, India — Summer has arrived in South Asia WAY too early.
A punishing heat wave has pushed temperatures past 120F (50C) in some areas. Some schools have closed early for the summer. Dozens of people have people have died of heat stroke.
The region is already hard-hit by climate change. Extreme heat is common in May. But not in April and March, both of which were the hottest across much of India for more than a century.
"It's smoldering hot! It's also humid, which is making it very difficult," Chrisell Rebello, 37, told NPR in line outside a Mumbai ice cream parlor at 11 p.m. "We need a lot of cold drinks, air conditioning – and multiple baths a day."