Earth is trapping twice, as much heat, as of 2005, now at an unprecedented pace ?

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA warned that the Earth is trapping twice as much heat as in 2005, now at an unprecedented pace ?

Researchers from NASA have warned the Earth is trapping heat at a rate so much higher, it’s “unprecedented.” The amount of heat being trapped by Earth has roughly doubled since 2005, the study found. The NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study pointed to human activities and changes in the oceans to be responsible as the key reasons. They found in a new study released recently in June, 2021, that Earth’s “energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.” The energy imbalance is simply how much heat the Earth absorbs from the sun, compared to how much “thermal infrared radiation” the Earth radiates back into space.

Norman Loeb, the study’s Lead Author and a NASA Investigator, said: “The magnitude of this increase is not to be taken lightly as it is unprecedented.” Researchers pointed to human activities as one of the main reasons for the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) generation. The study said the Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) from human activities were trapping heat in the atmosphere that then melted snow and ice, which in turn put more water vapour into the atmosphere, thereby preventing radiation from escaping. It also said that a “naturally occurring” shift in the Pacific Ocean from a cool phase to a warmer one is likely to have played a big role, to be witnessed so far.

The researchers used a series of satellites and a network of ocean floats to reach their findings, and compared the data from each. The Cover reflects One Of Such Satellite images of the tapped heat.

Norman Loeb again viewed: “The two very independent ways of looking at changes in Earth’s energy imbalance are in really, good agreement, and they’re both showing this very large trend, which gives us a lot of confidence that what we’re seeing is a real phenomenon and not just an instrumental arti-fact. “The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense.”

How Antarctica hit record temperature ?

From Canada to Russia, temperatures have been soaring with the attendant threat to flora and fauna sparking concern among experts and the public alike. And, now, the astounding reports of record-breaking heat waves in some of the coldest places on the planet, is coming, like that Antarctica, too, has registered a new high of heating, hence resulting in melting ice caps at a rapid pace, that had never happened before.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations body, announced on 1 July, 2021 that the new record for the maximum temperature for the southernmost continent is now 18.3 degrees Celsius, eclipsing the previous high of 17.5 degrees Celsius in March 2015.

The reading that revealed the latest high was taken in February 2020, at the same ice station, called Esperanza and run by Argentina, where the previous high was recorded. Interestingly, or perhaps alarmingly you might say, there was an even higher reading for Antarctica of 20.75 degrees Celsius recorded by a Brazilian station, again, in February 2020 that was actually shot down by a WMO review team because of issues with the measurement device.

It has to be kept in mind that the new record is only for the continent of Antarctica. The highest the mercury has ever gone for the larger Antarctic region, which comprises Antarctica and all ice or land south of 60 degrees latitude, is 19.8 degrees Celsius, recorded in January 1982.

Why it is a cause for worry ?

The year 2020 was the hottest on record globally after 2016, with the decade of the 2010s now classified as being the hottest decade ever since scientists started measuring the weather. Experts say it is undoubtedly human-induced climate change at work behind such rise in temperatures. The Antarctica region has been termed one of the “Earth’s final frontiers” and, along with the Arctic, is seen as playing “an important role in driving climate and ocean patterns and in sea level rise”.

Experts said that the Antarctic Peninsula, which is the northernmost tip of the continent, lying closest to South America, “is among the fastest warming regions of the planet, almost three degrees Celsius over the last 50 years”.

“This new temperature record is, therefore, consistent with the climate change we are observing,” said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas. The WMO again said that the continent of Antarctica is roughly twice the size of Australia and stretches across a total of 14 million square kilometres. Characterised by a cold, windy and dry climate, Antarctica sees average annual temperatures that range between -10 degrees Celsius at the coast to -60 degrees Celsius in the most elevated parts in the continent’s interior.

WMO adds that its “immense ice sheet is up to 4.8km thick and contains 90 per cent of the world’s fresh water, enough to raise sea level by around 60 metres were it all to melt”.

What caused the record reading ?

The specific factor that drove up the temperature in Antarctica was, the WMO said, a large high-pressure system that created “down slope winds producing significant surface warming”, and conditions that it added were “conducive for producing record temperature scenarios”.

However, for the underlying cause, one may not need to look further than climate change. “This new record shows once again that climate change requires urgent measures. It is essential to continue strengthening the observing, forecasting and early warning systems to respond to the extreme events that take place more and more often due to Global Warming,” said Argentine expert and First Vice President of WMO, Professor Celeste Saulo.

Referring to the heat waves in the northern hemisphere those have seen records been broken across Russia, Eastern Europe, the US and Canada, WMO said that “the heat is more typical of summer temperatures in West Asia” than areas that are home to glaciers, which means “there is a consequent risk of high glacier melt”.

Climate change poses risks to “Health, Livelihoods, Food Security, Water Supply, Human Security, and Economic Growth”, which can be exacerbated with Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, rather than 2 degrees Celsius, “could result in 420 million fewer people being exposed to severe heat waves”, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.

The Author is a Leading Indian Sustainability Thought Leader and Director General at Indian Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), New Delhi and deeply engaged in Climate Action Leadership Initiatives of UNFCCC, UNEP and Government of India. Dr Panigrahi is a National Science Popularization Award Winner, 2004-05.

The United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), together with the UK Government, in Partnership with Italy, which is serving as the COP 26 Presidency right now, and hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26) from 1st to 12th November, 2021; will be held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), in Glasgow; which was unfortunately had to be postponed last year, although was scheduled at Madrid, Spain at COP 25 to take place, during November-December 2020, due to the Global Corona COVID-19 Pandemic.

As COP-26 Presidency, the UK is committed to working with all countries and joining forces with civil society, companies and people on the frontline of climate change to inspire action ahead of COP 26, where the climate talks would bring together heads of state, climate experts and campaigners to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change. COP-26 President-Designate Shri Alok Sharma, MP is inviting Member Countries of UNFCCC to discuss their countries’ shared commitment to Climate Actions, which is UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13; especially with respect to their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Commitment to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2050, in the lead up to the COP-26 Summit. This COP is, in fact although delayed, is also long waited, because this historic event is extremely important, at this point of time to mobilize global support for immediate and strongest possible climate actions, which is an urgent call of the time.

There has been no major or transformative response so far from rich countries on the issue of climate change. While Europe has called for having Net Zero Emissions by mid-century, it may still be too late. We also need yet another Gap Report on how much climate change-related destruction is occurring in developing countries and the shortfall in the international support they need to receive based on countries’ responsibilities and capacities. Given the very short time that the world has to deliver solutions, what has failed in the past should not be repeated. We can certainly not rely on carbon markets or assume that insurance will magically be available for the poor to survive extreme events. Hence the ultimate question is – Are we doing enough for our own survival? Are we really serious enough to initiate very strong and affirmative climate actions right now? Or we are waiting someone or other to do it for us? Especially When, Greenland is losing ice 7 times faster than in 1990s and this melting may lead to 40 million more people, exposed to coastal flooding by the end of the century? In India, We have witnessed intense natural calamities like, Frequent Devastating Cyclones, Floods and Severe Droughts, impacting our lives and properties hugely.

With 1.15^oC Rise Of global temperature, while we are going through the climate emergency like, alarming situation and trying to focus now, for more and more aggressive Climate Actions, unexpectedly all of us, again started experiencing an another serious threat, got added to our survival i.e COVID 19 Pandemic; which has largely, in fact hijacked and is still diverting most of our proposed climate investments into meeting the health sector needs.

Postponing the timings of this crucial UN Climate Summit i.e. COP 26 last year was no doubt, not only a big blow to our ongoing global climate action agenda, but also adversely impacted, our speed in the journey of our collective planning and joint future climate actions, those scheduled ahead, that could have rolled under, Paris Agreement in near future. But since today COVID 19 has already impacted hugely, creating the unprecedented health crisis, the world really needs to get together to fight this dangerous virus and also support those most vulnerable to the economic fallout at the same time.

In fact, today, in this hour of a health crisis and the climate emergency, we cannot afford to tackle one or the other. We are unfortunately left with no choices. We must deal the both at the highest possible priority with an integrated approach. The both serve as tragic reminders that these global risks require immediate joint collective actions. Leaders need to work together, to identify the priority challenges and get prepared well in advance, share information and mobilize enough resources to make their own citizens and others, much stable, safer and healthy. As countries move forward with their revised national climate plans and set new commitments under the Paris Agreement, it is critically important that they take the necessary time to adjust to the current situation, while also aiming to achieve the highest possible ambitions, aiming strongest climate actions. It’s is a matter of positive sign that a number of smaller developing economies have, already initiated the lead role by announcing that they would come forward with enhanced plans for further lowing the carbon intensity of their GDP. But now we need more of that large economies should step-up more of their ambitious targets. These national climate plans should not be derailed from the recovery, but instead should be an integral part of national efforts to create enough jobs, boost growth, reduce health risks, and build more resilient economies.

The greatest challenge of the time today is, when the most of the nations of the Globe were crippling with huge financial crisis and resource crunch to meet their daily-day-today developmental goal needs, while allocating a justified budget out-lay, also to meet their climate action commitments; there is an every chance that, sudden appearance of COVID 19 Pandemic, may forcibly snatch way a considerable quantity of our valuable time, attention and after all our limited financial resource base, throwing climate actions far behind, which our Leaders, Policy Makers and Thought Leaders have to take as an urgent call at this point of hour and carefully strike a balanced approach, without further delay.

Leaders should commit to uplift the devastated communities against the Pandemic and adverse impact of the climate change together, to build back our all the systems better, converting every challenges into opportunities to make our people, economies, and communities safer and stronger. In Post COVID 19 period, we are likely to change our lifestyle habits, our industrial production systems, our age old traditional agricultural production practices, and many such things, where in this changed systems, we should have enough scope to include new investment options in decarbonising technologies and better preparedness for the future shocks of all kinds. If done right, investments in low-carbon infrastructure and related solutions can always boost employment; deliver higher productivity, and higher added value to the economy than traditional, polluting and carbon-intensive activities. In addition, when the business leaders and the finance sector all over the world, should wake up to the economic benefits of low-carbon and resilient investments, and the risks of the alternatives, it is high time that Governments should follow their lead and seize this moment to make a more decisive shift toward climate-smart, resilient growth that would certainly benefit their people and above all the global economy at large.

Our hearts are with those families, who lost their near and dear ones or anyway got affected by the global pandemic. The COVID-19 Pandemic is a stark reminder of the inequities in our vulnerability to global threats. These disparities are heightened by a rapidly warming world.

What lessons are we learning from this difficult time ? – Right now, kind of lessons, we learnt and experiences, we gained so far, during this time of misfortune, is how to build a resilient and at the same time, an Equitable and Sustainable Planet, in near future ? In fact, Planet needs all of us to join our hands now and to work together for creating a safer and stronger world for everyone.

The Author is a Leading Indian Sustainability Thought Leader and Director General at Indian Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), New Delhi and deeply engaged in Climate Action Leadership Initiatives of UNFCCC, UNEP and Government of India.