Climate crisis and no end in sight: According to the U.S. climate agency Noaa, the past year 2022 was the sixth warmest on average worldwide since measurements began in 1880.
The U.S. space agency Nasa comes to a similar conclusion in a separate report, according to which 2022, together with 2015, was even the fifth warmest year. According to Nasa, the Earth was on average about 1.11 degrees warmer in 2022 than at the end of the 19th century.
Climate crisis: experts sound the alarm
The past nine years have been the warmest since modern records began in 1880, according to Nasa data. “This warming trend is alarming,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson. The warming climate is already leaving its mark, he said: “Wildfires are increasing, hurricanes are getting stronger, droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising.”
Noaa said 2022 was also the 46th consecutive year since 1977 that global temperatures were above the 20th century average. She compared the 2022 global average temperature not to that at the end of the 19th century, but to the average temperature for the entire 20th century, which was 13.9 degrees. According to Noaa, the 2022 temperature was about 0.86 degrees higher than that century average.
According to WMO, 2016 was the warmest year to date
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also published its climate report for 2022 on Thursday, according to which 2022 is likely to have been the fifth or sixth warmest year. The differences between individual years are often so small that a precise ranking is difficult. According to the WMO, 2016 was the warmest year so far, with plus 1.3 degrees (compared to the average for the years 1850 to 1900), followed by 2019 and 2020. In 2022, the temperature was plus 1.15 degrees, according to the WMO.
