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| Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
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Junior Observer |  |
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From Abroad
2005 Costliest and hottest year ever The year 2005 is likely to go down as the hottest and the most stormy and dry ever on Earth, making a strong case for the urgent need to combat global warming, according to a new report. It has already turned out to be the most costly year ever.
The report by international environmental group WWF said, 2005 was shaping up as the worst ever for extreme weather, with the hottest temperatures, most Arctic melting, worst Atlantic hurricane season and warmest Caribbean waters. It has also been the driest year for many decades in the Amazon. The report used data from United States government sources and the World Meteorological Organisation. It was released on the side lines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was reviewing and upgrading the Kyoto Protocol. The treaty commits 35 industrialised nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over five per cent by 2012.
Kyoto targets carbon dioxide and five other heat trapping gases blamed for rising global temperatures and disrupted weather patterns. Many scientists believe that if temperatures continue to rise, extreme weather will continue to kill humans, disrupt lifestyles and make some animal species extinct. According to the report, NASA reported that the global average temperature last October was 0.06 degrees Celsius warmer than in 1998, the record year. The year also saw the highest recorded instance of rainfall (944 in 24 hours in Mumbai, India), the first hurricane to reach the European mainland, and the strongest hurricane on record. Hurricane Vince was the first to make landfall in Europe when it hit the Spanish coast in October. Tropical Storm Delta hit the Canaries, killing several people. It was the first tropical storm to strike there. Lara Hansen, chief scientist for the WWF's Climate Change Programme, said there was more at play than the cyclical patterns explaining the number of hurricanes last year.She noted the failure of the US National Hurricane Centre to predict how many hurricanes there would be during the year. The hurricane centre had predicted 18 to 21 storms, but so many were recorded that the official naming of them exceeded the Roman alphabet and had to be supplemented with letters of the Greek alphabet. Waters in the Caribbean were also hotter for a longer period of time than previously measured, causing extensive bleaching from Colombia to the Florida Keys, she noted. Consequences are also being felt up north, where the smallest-ever area of Arctic sea ice was recorded in September - 1,295,000 sq km smaller than the historic average - amid a 9.8 per cent decline, per decade, of perennial sea ice cover, the report said. Hansen said some predictions showed the Arctic north could become ice-free by the end of the century, or even by mid-century. "The rate at which we are losing sea ice goes beyond the normal models of what we would think would be happening," she said. With so many environmental flashpoints, she said the world must accept the urgency of preventing global warming. "The most effective and most quick way with the longest guarantee of success is reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuel," she said. Severe weather has made 2005 the most costly year on record, with unprecedented levels of insurance claims on damaged property. Economic losses globally will exceed US$200 billion and insured losses will be over US$70 billion, according to estimates released by the Munich Re Foundation, part of a leading re-insurance company. The year will trump 2004, the previous record year with global economic losses of US$145 billion and insured losses of US$45 billion. - The Straits Times |
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