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THE LAST SEVEN years have been the hottest on record globally “by a clear margin”, the European Union’s climate monitoring service has reported, as it raised the alarm over sharp increases in record concentrations of methane in the atmosphere.
Countries around the world have been blasted by a relentless assault of weather disasters linked to global warming in recent years, including record-shattering wildfires across Australia and Siberia, a once-in-1000-years heatwave in North America and extreme rainfall that caused massive flooding in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe.
In its latest annual assessment, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed that 2021 had joined the unbroken warm streak since 2015.
It found that last year was the fifth warmest on record globally, marginally warmer than 2015 and 2018. Accurate measurements go back to the mid-19th century.
The annual average temperature was 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, measured between 1850 and 1900, C3S said.
That was despite the cooling effect of the natural La Nina weather phenomenon.
Overall, the monitoring service found the last seven years “have been the warmest years on record by a clear margin”.
“2021 was yet another year of extreme temperatures with the hottest summer in Europe, heatwaves in the Mediterranean, not to mention the unprecedented high temperatures in North America,” said C3S Director Carlo Buontempo.
“These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards reducing net carbon emissions.”
Methane surge
The C3S also monitored atmospheric concentrations of the planet-warming gases carbon dioxide and methane, finding that both had increased with no sign of a slowdown.
Methane particularly has gone up “very substantially”, to an annual record of about 1,876 parts per billion (ppb).
Growth rates for 2020 and 2021 were 14.6 ppb per year and 16.3 ppb per year, respectively. That is more than double the average annual growth rate seen over the previous 17 years.
But an array of human-caused and natural sources made it hard to pinpoint why there had been such a strong increase in recent years, C3S said.
Methane (CH4) is the gas most responsible for global warming after CO2. While more short-lived in the atmosphere, it is many times more potent than CO2.
Natural sources include wetlands, while human-induced sources are leaks from natural gas and oil production, coal mining and landfills, as well as rice paddies, livestock and manure handling.
Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, which tracks greenhouse gas increases, said observational evidence was crucial in the effort to avoid “climate catastrophe”.
Reducing the amount of methane seeping into the air would quickly translate into a slowdown of rising temperatures, and help close the so-called emissions gap between the Paris Agreement target of a 1.5C cap on warming and the 2.7C we are heading for even if all nations honour their carbon-cutting promises.
That has spurred interest from policymakers keen to find the quickest ways to wrestle down emissions.
At the COP26 climate summit last year, around a hundred nations joined an initiative to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade. Noticeably absent was China.
The oil and gas industry has the biggest potential for rapid reductions, especially through the detection and repair of gas leaks during production and transport.
While global warming may seem gradual, its impact on extreme events is “dramatic”, said Rowan Sutton, of Britain’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science at Reading University.
“We should see the record breaking 2021 events, such as the heatwave in Canada and floods in Germany, as a punch in the face to make politicians and public alike wake up to the urgency of the climate emergency,” he told the Science Media Centre.
“Moreover, the continued increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere screams out that the underlying causes have yet to be addressed.”
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Over 50 years since the first civil rights marches took place in the north and Irish citizens are still having to fight for their rights in Ireland. Bit by bit though, we are winning the fight.
@Johnny 5:
She obviously didn’t feel very strongly enough about her desire not to be a British citizen. It would have cost her £200 to have her British Citizenship revoked. So instead she went to court, lost and is still a British Citizen.
The fact that anyone born in Northern Ireland is a British citizen at birth, unless they actually renounce it, it still stands in UK law. They don’t have to act on it, or ever use their British citizenship, but it is always there.
On the other side of that coin, is that in Irish law, anyone born in Northern Ireland is an Irish Citizen by default, again they don’t have to act on it or ever use it but it is always there. I don’t know if there is a legal route in Ireland to renounce your Irish citizenship.
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: under the Good Friday Agreement she is entitled to both Irish & British citizenship,…. it was a legal issue as a result of Brexit with regard to her husband, a loophole that needed to be fixed of which there are many in both countries in unrelated matters… that crop up now and again.
And to prove my point that she is entitled to both UK & Irish citizenship as a result of the Good Friday Agreement I point to the New Zealand actor Sam Neill who was born in Northern Ireland and has both UK & Irish Citizenship.
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh:
Your understanding of the case is completely incorrect. Read up on it
It had nothing to do with Brexit. It was not a loophole. It was a very significant point of international law.
The GFA allows for people born in Northern Ireland to “identify” as British / Irish or both.
The UK’s stand was very logical and responsible: A child, born in Northern Ireland does not have the faculties to identify as an Irish citizen. If they were not considered a British citizen at birth, they would effectively be stateless. The UK government would then be in breach of its international obligations.
deSouza, and those funding her, had no chance of winning their case.
@Paul O’Sullivan: She was not trying to argue her entitlement to Irish or British citizenship
She was attempting to argue in law that she was “not” British by default.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Sorry Paul, the first comment was in response to you, obviously not to myself
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: You must be sickened at this news. You did everything you could to fight it. Ireland always had her traitors and that is as much the case today as ever. You sided with the British in another blatant infringement of an IRISH citizens rights. I hope when this island celebrates reunification that your friends tell you not to bother coming down to the pub to celebrate. You wont be welcome.
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: you ok hun?
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: it had everything to do with Brexit..
@Conan Campbell:
The complexities of this case are obviously beyond your capacity to understand it.
I am far more of an Irishman than someone who supports any organisation responsible for the murder of an Irish soldier, Irish Gardaí and Irish citizens. Here is a list of the Irish soldier and numerous Gardaí murdered by the traitorous organisations of the IRA and INLA.
Pte Patrick Kelly, Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, Garda Richard Fallon, Insp Samuel Donegan, Garda Michael Reynolds, Garda Michael Clerkin, Garda John Morley, Garda Henry Byrne, Garda James Quaid, Garda Patrick Reynold, Garda Patrick McLoughlin, Garda Gary Sheehan, Garda Francis Hand, Sgt Patrick Morrissey
@Paul O’Sullivan: Sorry Paul. The original case had absolutely nothing to do with Brexit. If you don’t believe me, read up on the case. Its a very interesting case.
What happened recently was different, and yes, was related to brexit. The UK government changed the immigration law so as to treat both Irish and British citizens born in Northern Ireland as EU citizens in respect getting residency for a non EU spouse. What that meant for the deSouzas was that her nationality was irrelevant to the immigration process.
What it meant for the court case was that the deSouzas now effectively have no legal standing to take the case, and the current UK law still stands in that a person born in Northern Ireland is regarded as a British Citizen at birth.
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: What has this to do with the topic. Ps you failed to mention Dublin Monaghan bombings which was supported and aided by British intelligence, Bloody Sunday, Murders in Ballymurphy, and many other innocent civilians murdered by loyalists and security forces..A bit of balance please .
Yes bit by bit indeed. Nothing irritates the British Gov more than the north of Ireland being discussed in the U.S Congress. London being Honest Brokers and all that.
There’s Hozier again
Does this mean that a baby born in NI to parents from NI (UK citizens) cannot automatically be conferred with British or Irish citizenship? Do we have to wait for the baby who can choose either citizenship? If the state can’t assign me citizenship without consent, should my parents be able to? They might be high-ranking members of the DUP, but how do they know the baby doesn’t think it’s Irish? They might be infringing the childs rights to be an Irish citizen and not be British.
@Conall:
They are still automatically regarded as British Citizens in UK law. They are also regarded as Irish Citizens in Irish law.
The Good Friday Agreement allows for a person born in Northern Ireland to identify as Irish, British or both. It does not allow for their parents or guardians to make that identification for them.
There is nothing to signify at what age a person is capable of making that identification, it would need to be tested in court.
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