Is 2016 the hottest year ever? Apparently yes. “All indications are that 2016 will be the hottest year in history, above the record set in 2015”: this emerges from a statement released on the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference (COP22), during which it emerged that global temperature has risen 1,2 degrees from the pre-industrial average.
More than 190 countries gathered in Marrakech to try to proceed with the implementation of the Paris Agreement signed last year (COP21) with the aim of limiting global warming below 2°C. Beyond this threshold, according to climatologists it will be extremely difficult to adapt to the effects of climate change in many areas of the world. In particular the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has reached unprecedented levels and Arctic sea ice extent has been modest. Conversely, the melting of the ice has been very intense, especially this year of the Arctic sea ice, for example in Greenland, was the second lowest on record (4,14 million km2 in September), behind only that of 2012.
“In some arctic regions of the Russian Federation, the temperature was six to seven degrees above normal,” said Petteri Taalas, WMO secretary general, “while in many arctic and subarctic regions of Russia, Alaska and northwestern Canada , the temperature was at least 3°C above normal. The high ocean temperatures have also generated a significant coral bleaching phenomenon in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and, according to the WMO, “up to 50% of corals are dead”.
The future of the planet is therefore increasingly at risk, especially after the election of Donald Trump to the White House: during the election campaign, the tycoon has always maintained that the theme of global warming was created by the Chinese to damage the American economy. Moreover global warming will hurt the poorest countries, helping to widen the gap with the richest countries: according to a study conducted by the Universities of Stanford and Berkeley, published last year in Nature, every extra degree on the mercury column of the planet's thermometer will damage the economy of three quarters of Countries of the world.
