WHAT CLIMATE ASSESSMENT IN 2020?
Average temperatures keep rising all over the globe, and each year seems to be breaking the heat record of the previous year. From now on, it is the race for the thermometer all over the world, the main consequence of the climate change that our planet is undergoing.
With more than 20 ° C recorded this year in Antarctica, and a first quarter of 2020 among the hottest ever seen on earth, global warming has only just begun, leading with it to numerous climatic catastrophes.
This year will arguably be the hottest in over 140 years, and by 2024, the Earth will see an increase in its average temperature of 1.5 ° C.
A sad observation which reminds us of the urgency of reducing our carbon footprint, both individually and collectively.
An increase that seems derisory but amply sufficient to see the immediate consequences. Climate change can be seen on a daily basis: warmer winters and scorching summers, but also storms, floods and fires. Consequences having in particular a very negative and flagrant impact on agriculture and fishing, key sectors of the human world diet.
All scientists and relevant environmental organizations are clear on the outcome of this global warming: if nothing is done to mitigate it, climate disasters will only increase every year.
In addition, polluting industries continue to worsen their carbon footprint everywhere on the planet, a footprint responsible for 66% of greenhouse gases from human activity, in addition to energy consumption and the use of ever more important non-renewable fossil fuels.
This global warming, driven by the increase in greenhouse gases emitted by human activities, is also accompanied by increasingly devastating pollution for the ecosystem: illegal open dumps all over the world, plastic discharges in the oceans … Harmful consequences of the presence of man that the confinement of 2020 will not have been enough to eradicate.
The oceans and marine life seem to be the first victims of our current manufacturing and consumption patterns. Every year, 8 million tons of plastic waste ends up going adrift. This plastic contamination of the oceans is devastating both for the environment and for animals.
Indeed, in the first line of sight, marine mammals, fish and birds are increasingly suffering from this pollution. Whales, turtles and seabirds are now endangered species, victims of the pieces of plastic in the oceans that they mistake for potential prey.
Beyond animal suffering, it is populations of entire countries who, every day, evolve in an environment polluted by waste from global plastic consumption. Unauthorized dumping can occur without too much difficulty in most underprivileged countries, polluting the soils and the living environment of living beings around.
To mitigate this most alarming climate record, the Paris Climate Agreement, adopted in 2015 by 195 countries, clarifies the commitments made to limit global warming. Strong and immediate measures must therefore be taken to reduce CO2 emissions and the environmental impact in all regions of the world.