ISLAMABAD: Earth’s average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record, according to an analysis by (NASA).
Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0.89 degrees Celsius, above the average for NASA’s baseline period 1951-1980, scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.
“This warming trend is alarming,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising. NASA is deepening our commitment to do our part in addressing climate change,” said Nelson.
The past nine years have been the warmest years since modern record-keeping began in 1880. This meant Earth in 2022 was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 1.11 degrees Celsius, warmer than the late 19th-century average, the study said.
“The reason for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term planetary impacts will also continue,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS.
Recently, NASA scientists, as well as international scientists, determined carbon dioxide emissions were the highest on record in 2022, the study said.
NASA also identified some super-emitters of methane – another powerful greenhouse gas – using the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation instrument that was launched to the International Space Station last year, nasa.gov reported.
The Arctic region continues to experience the strongest warming trends – close to four times the global average – according to GISS research presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, as well as a separate study.
Communities around the world are experiencing impacts scientists see as connected to the warming atmosphere and ocean. Climate change has intensified rainfall and tropical storms deepened the severity of droughts and increased the impact of storm surges.