Land Ecosystems Are Becoming Less Efficient At Absorbing CO2

NASA -  Esprit Smith

Land ecosystems currently play a key role in mitigating climate change. 

The more carbon dioxide (CO₂) plants and trees absorb during photosynthesis, the process they use to make food, the less CO₂ remains trapped in the atmosphere where it can cause temperatures to rise. 

But scientists have identified an unsettling trend – as levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere increase, 86 percent of land ecosystems globally are becoming progressively less efficient at absorbing it.

Plants play a key role in mitigating climate change. The more carbon dioxide they absorb during photosynthesis, the less carbon dioxide remains trapped in the atmosphere where it can cause temperatures to rise. But scientists have identified an unsettling trend – 86% of land ecosystems globally are becoming progressively less efficient at absorbing the increasing levels of CO2 from the atmosphere. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/Katy Mersmann

Because CO₂ is a main ‘ingredient’ that plants need to grow, elevated concentrations of it cause an increase in photosynthesis, and consequently, plant growth – a phenomenon aptly referred to as the CO₂ fertilization effect, or CFE. CFE is considered a key factor in the response of vegetation to rising atmospheric CO₂ as well as an important mechanism for removing this potent greenhouse gas from our atmosphere – but that may be changing.

For a new study published Dec. 10 in Science, researchers analyzed multiple field, satellite-derived and model-based datasets to better understand what effect increasing levels of CO₂ may be having on CFE. Their findings have important implications for the role plants can be expected to play in offsetting climate change in the years to come.

“In this study, by analyzing the best available long-term data from remote sensing and state-of-the-art land-surface models, we have found that since 1982, the global average CFE has decreased steadily from 21 percent to 12 percent per 100 ppm of CO₂ in the atmosphere,” said Ben Poulter, study co-author and scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “In other words, terrestrial ecosystems are becoming less reliable as a temporary climate change mitigator.”

What’s Causing It?

Without this feedback between photosynthesis and elevated atmospheric CO₂, Poulter said we would have seen climate change occurring at a much more rapid rate. But scientists have been concerned about how long the CO₂ Fertilization Effect could be sustained before other limitations on plant growth kick in.

For instance, while an abundance of CO₂ won’t limit growth, a lack of water, nutrients, or sunlight – the other necessary components of photosynthesis -- will. To determine why the CFE has been decreasing, the study team took the availability of these other elements into account.

“According to our data, what appears to be happening is that there’s both a moisture limitation as well as a nutrient limitation coming into play,” Poulter said. “In the tropics, there’s often just not enough nitrogen or phosphorus, to sustain photosynthesis, and in the high-latitude temperate and boreal regions, soil moisture is now more limiting than air temperature because of recent warming.”

In effect, climate change is weakening plants’ ability to mitigate further climate change over large areas of the planet.

Next Steps

The international science team found that when remote-sensing observations were taken into account – including vegetation index data from NASA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments – the decline in CFE is more substantial than current land-surface models have shown. 

Poulter says this is because modelers have struggled to account for nutrient feedbacks and soil moisture limitations – due, in part, to a lack of global observations of them.

“By combining decades of remote sensing data like we have done here, we’re able to see these limitations on plant growth. As such, the study shows a clear way forward for model development, especially with new remote sensing observations of vegetation traits expected in coming years,” he said. “These observations will help advance models to incorporate ecosystem processes, climate and CO₂ feedbacks more realistically.”

The results of the study also highlight the importance of the role of ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. According to Poulter, going forward, the decreasing carbon-uptake efficiency of land ecosystems means we may see the amount of CO₂ remaining in the atmosphere after fossil fuel burning and deforestation start to increase, shrinking the remaining carbon budget.

“What this means is that to avoid 1.5 or 2°C warming and the associated climate impacts, we need to adjust the remaining carbon budget to account for the weakening of the plant CO₂ Fertilization Effect,” he said. “And because of this weakening, land ecosystems will not be as reliable for climate mitigation in the coming decades.”

Links

• Ask the Experts: Does Rising CO2 Benefit Plants?
• Effects of Rising Atmospheric Concentrations of Carbon Dioxide on Plants
• Climate Change and Ecosystems
• Effect of increasing CO2 on the terrestrial carbon cycle
• Direct effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on plants and ecosystems
• Large losses of ammonium-nitrogen from a rice ecosystem under elevated CO2
• Recent global decline of CO2 fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis

(AU) From Bushfires To Flash Flooding, What Will The Australian Summer Of The Future Look Like?

ABC News - Bridget Judd

Residents of Tumbulgum paddle their kayaks down a street on December 15. (AAP: Jason O'Brien)

"State of emergency declared", read the headlines in the days leading up to Christmas last year.

Twelve months on, and some Australian communities once under threat from fire now find themselves grappling with a new emergency as a La Nina weather pattern takes hold.

In parts of northern NSW, where flood warnings were issued this month, consecutive days of wild weather caused thousands of residents to remain on standby for evacuation.

And with the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO's latest biannual report on the climate observing "a more tangible shift in the extremes", questions are emerging about what the summers of the future may hold.

"The idea that we can use the past as a reliable index for the future has sort of been dynamited at the foundations," says David Bowman, a fire ecologist at the University of Tasmania, "because we're seeing such extreme unpredictable things."

'We're talking about really major extremes'

It was around this time last year — just as a series of bushfires that would later be known as Black Summer were beginning to escalate — that Bowman was fielding calls from journalists.

"The year 2020 has been historic in the sense of completely reframing how our modern civilization feels about its place in the environment," he says.

"And certainly the catastrophic bushfires in Australia, and again, in California ... they've all underscored that the earth system is responding to global heating."

What El Nino and La Nina actually

mean for Australian and world weather

A Pacific Ocean phenomena with impacts around the world. Read more

Last summer's fires claimed the lives of 33 people, garnering international headlines and prompting an outpouring of donations and support in the months shortly after. But Bowman believes the coronavirus pandemic "papered over the shock of the bushfires".

Now, as we enter a new summer, "all those anxieties and unfinished business is bubbling up in a way that's different", he says.

"Because during the pandemic — and during winter, strangely — bushfires felt a long way away," he says. "The declaration of a La Nina, I think, was a bit of a false flag game that sort of provided a sense that we were going to be avoiding bushfires."

Bowman points to the K'gari-Fraser Island blaze, which burnt through nearly half the World Heritage-listed site before being contained by heavy rain.

The problem, he says, is "the lining up of the heatwaves and the flooding events". 

Water bombers attempting to contain Fraser Island bushfire. 

"Unfortunately, what happened in south-east Queensland is that there was this stupendous heatwave that enabled a fire to occur during a La Nina year," he says, adding: "We wouldn't have predicted such an intense fire".

"And now, literally in days, it switched from an uncontrolled bushfire burning Fraser Island to this side of a category one cyclone in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

"So ... we're talking about really major extremes."

Could our coastal environment change?

Days of heavy rain and powerful winds in border communities have eroded some of the country's most famous beaches.

Rodger Tomlinson, director of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management at Griffith University, says areas like Byron Bay — where he has been studying erosion more broadly — were "hit very badly" by the major storm system.

"Generally speaking, if we're going to have more storms, we're going to see more coastal erosion, more rainfall and wet weather, such as we've been seeing," he says.


An erosion-damaged disabled access to Clarkes Beach at Byron Bay. (AAP: Dan Peled)

Asked if today's beaches will be the same in a few decades' time, Tomlinson says there is a risk of change in areas "particularly vulnerable to increased storminess, or if there's no management strategies to keep pace with those events".

"But the general projections in the long-term is that we will see changes to our coastal environments due to climate change," he says.

The key to preserving these coastlines for summers to come, Tomlinson says, will come down to our ability to adapt.

Sea walls are one option, he says — noting that they have been unpopular in the past — as is the long-term possibility communities may need to "be moved away from that erosion". 

Storm causes erosion and sea foam at Tugun on the Gold Coast.

"But that's very problematic, and there's no evidence of that being seriously considered anywhere on our coast," he says.

"After the floods in 2011, in the Lockyer Valley, the community of Grantham was relocated to higher ground. But applying that kind of a process on the coast is a lot more difficult, mainly because of the intensity of development in nice locations."

Looking — and planning — ahead

As communities in northern and eastern Australia prepare for a wet summer — vastly different scenes to those witnessed just a year ago — Bowman cautions we are not out of the woods yet.

How to plan for flooding

If you could be cut off by floodwaters, make preparations. ABC Emergency has put together a list of things you should do if you are affected. Read more

"It's really going to get down to when did the rain come? And when did the heatwave come?" he says. 

"What happened on Fraser Island is that the order was wrong. It just got this incredible heatwave, then it got the rain."

Reflecting on the Black Summer bushfires, Bowman believes political leaders need to look beyond simply funding new firefighting equipment, and invest in bushfire mitigation strategies for future.

"Really, where I'm at 12 months on, is not asking 'Was there a royal commission? Was there soul searching? Was there grief and anxiety?" he says.

"All of those things are absolutely true. But what we haven't done is committed to an adaptation pathway."

How to prepare for a flood | Emergency Tips

Links

• BOM and CSIRO State of the Climate 2020 shows Australia is experiencing climate change now
• Plan for an Emergency
• What El Nino and La Nina actually mean for Australian and world weather
• BOM declares a La Niña, signalling wet spring and summer likely for northern, eastern Australia
• Gas project will cause 'more hardship' for communities, NSW farmers to argue in court
• Fighting bushfires with indigenous knowledge
• Can Australia do more to encourage electric cars?

From Hopeful To Horrific, Here Are The 10 Most Important Climate Stories Of 2020

Mic - AJ Dellinger

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

For those of us who lived through it, 2020 will forever be remembered as the year that just wouldn't end, the year where it felt like everything bad happened all at once. But it will hopefully also be looked back on by future historians as a turning point in our efforts to address climate change. During a year in which the devastating effects of our changing atmosphere became impossible to ignore, countries and corporations in 2020 seemed to recognize more than ever before that urgent action is necessary.

It will be a few years, or decades, before we know if things really did change for the better in 2020, but regardless of what this year’s ultimate legacy may be, a lot has happened over the last 12 months in the environmental and climate change arenas. This is Mic’s guide to the most important of those happenings.

Wildfires run rampant in Australia and California

Though they started in 2019, Australia’s devastating bush fires raged well into 2020. When the flames finally started to die down in March, the country had lost more than 46 million acres of land, about 6,000 buildings including nearly 3,000 homes, and the lives of 34 people. The fires were particularly damaging to Australia's wildlife. Experts believe as many as one billion animals died in the flames, and many others lost access to the habitats they call home. The fires, exacerbated by record-setting heat plaguing the nation and science-denying politicians who ignored the warning signs, amounted to the worst year for Australia's environment in more than a century.

Matt Mawson/Moment/Getty Images

While it wasn't the literal embers from Australia's fires that carried over to California, it sure felt like a continuation of those destructive flames when the West Coast of the United States was on fire through the summer of 2020. In August, California started experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 10,000 individual fires, including a massive one caused by the use of a pyrotechnic at a gender reveal party, ended up destroying more than four million acres of land. The fires spread into neighboring states, expanding the destruction and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. While pinning the particularly horrific wildfire season on a single cause is difficult, there's little doubt that climate change made matters much worse, and we should likely expect more calamitous events to come.

Joe Biden elected president on climate-forward agenda

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

After four years of Donald Trump's seeming disdain for experts and destructive tendencies that left the Environmental Protection Agency in shambles and infused with anti-science impulses, a majority of Americans decided it was time to right the ship. Joe Biden was elected president of the United States, and while he won't take office until 2021, his victory in 2020 was enough to warrant a sigh of relief for many. Biden ran with climate change as one of his top priorities, including a $2 trillion plan to get the US to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and a strong history on the issue. He'll have plenty of work ahead of him, as the previous administration left a mess of environmental policy, but with promises to create new positions to address climate change, a climate-focused cabinet, and a slew of executive tools at his disposal, the Biden administration could mark the moment that the US finally gets serious about climate change.

Trump rushes to open up ANWR

Tandem Stills + Motion/Photodisc/Getty Images

After losing the election, Trump has made a point to do as much damage as possible before getting kicked to the curb. Earlier this year, his administration finalized a rule that would allow the federal government to lease land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the largest national wildlife refuge in the country, for oil drilling. To make it happen, Trump is rushing the auction process to try to sell off the land as quickly as possible, just to get the deals on the books before he leaves office. It's one of a number of rush jobs that Trump is trying to push through, as if he's got to fit as many environmental disasters in as possible before January 20, 2021.

Climate pledges get serious

Yaorusheng/Moment/Getty Images

Climate change is real and caused by human activity. Thus far, too much of the emphasis on addressing it has been placed on individuals when the biggest polluters are just a handful of corporations and industrious countries. 2020 is the year that those most responsible for the emissions that are warming the planet finally promised to change their ways. China, the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged that it would reach net-zero emissions by 2060. It was joined by gas and oil giants like BP, which claims it will reach net-zero status by 2050. Other companies that present as more climate-conscious, like Microsoft, are making plans to remove their entire history of carbon emissions. Even the US appears to be back on board with addressing the issue, with the incoming Biden administration promising to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement. We just have to hope it isn't too little, too late.

US leaves Paris Agreement (but will be right back)

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images

2020 marked the five-year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, but the US did not attend the reunion. Under the Trump administration, the US left the accord. It was a promise that Trump made on the campaign trail, set in motion as soon as he took office, and finally made good on this year. Leaving the global agreement didn't tank the effort entirely, though the Paris Climate Agreement has produced considerably less ambitious efforts than are needed. But President-elect Biden has promised to bring the US back into the fold and recommit to the accord, with the goal of leading a much more aggressive effort that other nations will hopefully follow.

Coronavirus-related emissions reductions

NurPhoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images

When the coronavirus pandemic sent much of the world into lockdowns, emissions dropped dramatically. We started to see the skies and water clear up and it seemed as though we might actually put a big enough dent in our emissions to make a difference. That dream was short-lived, as emissions started to skyrocket back to pre-pandemic levels as soon as the world started turning again. The response to the pandemic is not necessarily a blueprint for addressing climate change, but it does show how collective action can make a significant difference. Now we've just got to figure out how to make that action stick.

Another hottest year on record

Jose A. Bernat Bacete/Moment/Getty Images

If it seems like every year is the hottest year in history, that’s because it is. The planet keeps getting warmer, and as a result, we keep setting new records for heat. 2020 is unlikely to be an exception to the rule. Experts indicate that the year is nearly tied for the mark of hottest year in the record books and is likely to earn the title by year's end. This should come as little surprise following the hottest decade in our recorded history and expectations that extreme heat will continue to get worse throughout this century. 

Clean energy gains momentum

kamisoka/E+/Getty Images

While the Trump administration has done its damnedest to prop up coal and oil, 2020 has been a pretty momentous year for renewable energy alternatives. For the first time ever, clean energy sources like wind and solar surpassed coal as an energy source in the US, even as Trump held back funding and tried to hide studies supporting clean innovations. Add to that the fact that clean energy has become cheaper and more sustainable than some dirty-burning fuels and has made significant strides in countries like the UK, and it looks like the world finally may be embracing renewable energy in a meaningful way. 

Arctic and Antarctic ice disappearing at an alarming rate

Anton Petrus/Moment/Getty Images

Much of the planet is warming, and the Arctic is no exception. The polar region known for its thick layers of sea ice has been feeling the effects of climate change, and we started to learn just how bad it is getting this year. Researchers discovered that the Arctic is warmer than it has been at any point in the last three million years. That perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise, as even the coldest spot on the planet started to feel the heat this year, but the effects are potentially devastating. Ice around the planet is melting at what experts have called a "mind-blowing" rate, which could expose the planet to all sorts of harmful effects, from rising oceans to exposure to previously frozen viruses and diseases.

Public opinion polls showing people are finally starting to care about climate crisis

NurPhoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images

If there is one good thing to come out of all the environmental disasters that have plagued the planet throughout 2020 and the years prior, it's the fact that the general public finally seems to be prioritizing the planet. This year saw more support for truly taking action to address climate change. Polling found that two-thirds of Americans believe the government is doing too little to address the climate crisis and nearly three in four believe that climate change is happening. That includes newfound support from young Republicans, who are bucking the party and pushing for action on climate change. It appears environmental disasters are one issue that can cut through the partisan bullshit that has clouded the climate conversation for decades, as many are faced to look toward an ugly future if no action is taken. 

Links

• (AU) Heat Is The 'Silent Killer' Of Australia's Bushfire Season And Experts Say Climate Change Is The Root Cause
• Born In The Ice Age, Humankind Now Faces The Age Of Fire – And Australia Is On The Frontline
• Climate Change: 2020 Set To Be One Of The Three Warmest Years On Record
• (AU) Australia Endures Hottest Spring Ever, With Temperatures More Than 2C Above Average
• Gizmodo Year In Review
• (AU) 2020 Climate Year in Review - Legal Insights

10 Ways You Can Fight Climate Change

Green America - Mary Meade

Source: Createria

1. Eliminate Food Waste

Food waste in the US occurs mostly in stores and at home—either because it spoils on the store shelf or before we can eat it. According to an NRDC study, Americans throw away up to 40 percent of the food they buy. We can combat food waste by shopping for what you need, eating leftovers, composting scraps, and donating excess to food banks. You can find a local food bank at FeedingAmerica.org. Project Drawdown estimates that curbing food waste could avoid a whopping 70.5 gigatons of CO2—that’s a bigger impact than restoring 435 million acres of tropical forest.

2. Eat Plant-Based

Transitioning to a vegetarian diet can cut your carbon footprint in half, and going vegan, even lower. Even shifting from high to low meat consumption can shrink your footprint by a third, according to a University of Oxford study. If half of the world’s population reduced meat consumption and avoided the associated deforestation caused by agriculture, we could reduce carbon emissions by 66 gigatons.

3. Use Clean Energy

Renewable energy is fundamental to powering the world as we move away from fossil fuels. Modeled after World War II “war bonds,” Clean Energy Victory Bonds—a bill introduced to Congress by Sen. Udall (D-NM), Reps. Lofgren (D-CA), and Reps. Matsui (D-CA)—would offer Treasury bonds as low as $25 to finance the government’s clean energy programs. Ask your representatives to support this bill to make Clean Energy Victory Bonds a reality. Additionally, you can purchase renewable energy from installers such as Blue Pacific Solar and RGS Energy, as well as plug into renewable utilities with Clean Choice Energy and Arcadia Power, which don’t require you to install any new hardware in your home to get sun- and wind-power.

4. Participate in the Democratic Process

Climate change has implications on local, national, and global levels. While the average person isn’t responsible for governing a nation, we are responsible for deciding who does. Vote for a climate activist, support comprehensive climate policies, and use your citizen voice to contact legislators when you disagree. The results of upcoming elections will determine how Americans and their elected leaders grapple with catastrophic climate change.

5. Divest

The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuels. Divesting means taking your money out of institutions that fund fossil fuel expansion, which could eventually dry up funding to those projects. So far, the fossil fuel divestment movement has removed $9.94 trillion dollars from fossil fuel companies because of institutional divestments and $5.2 billion thanks to 58,000 individual divestments. You can build a fossil-free portfolio with our nationwide network of socially-responsible investing financial advisors which you can find on GreenPages.org and by encouraging your faith organization or alma mater to divest.

6. Improve Insulation

One of the most cost-effective and accessible tactics to combating the climate crisis is better insulation. Older homes can lose up to 35 percent of heat through their walls. Modern insulation reduces the energy needed to heat a home, therefore reducing emissions and saving you money. If even half of existing buildings installed thicker insulation, 8.3 gigatons of emissions could be avoided—that’s more than overhauling efficiency for the entire international shipping industry.

7. Use LED Lighting

LEDs (light-emitting diodes) use 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and half as much as compact fluorescents. They convert electrons to photons, effectively using electricity to create light without giving off heat, which wastes energy. Switching your home to LED lights will reduce cooling bills. They also last longer than other bulbs, so choosing them will bring long-term savings. According to Project Drawdown, universal adoption of LEDs could prevent 7.8 gigatons of carbon emissions.

8. Rethink Transportation

Overhauling the world’s transportation systems, both commercial and personal, would save as much CO2 as one billion acres of regenerative agriculture. Commercial trucks alone account for six percent of the world’s emissions—more than the collective emissions of airplanes around the globe. While individuals can’t revolutionize the shipping, flight, and automobile industries overnight, we can demand they change by voting with our dollars for public transit, using electric or hybrid vehicles, and reducing our total trips taken. ShamePlane.com can help you visualize the impact of your travels on the arctic, such as air travel and going car-free.

9. Recycle

Acquiring virgin resources—from logging trees to mining minerals—exploits more resources than recycling existing materials. For example, recycled aluminum products use 95 percent less energy than creating new ones. About 50 percent of recycled materials come from households; if that number were to increase to 65 percent, at-home recycling could prevent 2.8 gigatons of carbon emissions. However, recycling wrong can slow the system and create more waste, so be sure to rinse out your recyclables and stay up to date on local regulations to make sure what you recycle isn’t causing contamination.

10. Buy Less

Choosing to buy less or not at all is the original mantra for saving money. Add “refuse” to the three Rs you’ve already heard of: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Additionally, when you don’t buy, you cut down on the amount that you contribute to landfills. The carbon footprint of refusing is hard to calculate because it varies from person to person, but tools like footprintcalculator.org can help you determine your current ecological footprint and offer actionable solutions for change, including buying less.

Links

• Project Drawdown
• We Need a New Definition of Corporate Climate Leadership
• Educating Girls is More Effective in the Climate Emergency Than Many Green Technologies
• Crystal Chissell on The astonishing climate effect of empowering girls and women
• The End of Meat is Here
• Refrigerants’ Major Role in Saving the Planet
• Innovative Solutions for our Climate Emergency
• The 10 Best Books On Climate Change, According to Climate Activists
• Could Changing the Way We Farm Rice Be a Climate Solution?
• What You Need to Know and Do to Save the Planet

Climate Change: Extreme Weather Causes Huge Losses In 2020

BBC - Matt McGrath

Flooding in India this year was linked to a very heavy Monsoon. BABU

The world continued to pay a very high price for extreme weather in 2020, according to a report from the charity Christian Aid.

Against a backdrop of climate change, its study lists 10 events that saw thousands of lives lost and major insurance costs.

Six of the events took place in Asia, with floods in China and India causing damages of more than $40bn.

In the US, record hurricanes and wildfires caused some $60bn in losses.

While the world has been struggling to get to grips with the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people have also had to cope with the impacts of extreme weather events.

Christian Aid's list of ten storms, floods and fires all cost at least $1.5bn - with nine of the 10 costing at least $5bn.

An unusually rainy monsoon season was associated with some of the most damaging storms in Asia, where some of the biggest losses were. Over a period of months, heavy flooding in India saw more than 2,000 deaths with millions of people displaced from their homes.

The value of the insured losses is estimated at $10bn.

China suffered even greater financial damage from flooding, running to around $32bn between June and October this year. The loss of life from these events was much smaller than in India. While these were slow-moving disasters, some events did enormous damage in a short period of time.

Cyclone Amphan struck the Bay of Bengal in May and caused losses estimated at $13bn in just a few days.

"We saw record temperatures in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, straddling between 30C-33C," said Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune.

"These high temperatures had the characteristics of marine heat waves that might have led to the rapid intensification of the pre-monsoon cyclones Amphan and Nisarga," he said in a comment on the Christian Aid study.

"Amphan was one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal during the pre-monsoon season."

Africa was also on the receiving end of extreme events, with massive locust swarms ruining crops and vegetation to the tune of $8.5bn.

Locust swarms ruined crops in parts of Africa, causing huge financial losses. Reuters

The UN has linked these swarms to climate change, with unusually heavy rains in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa in recent years contributing to the locust outbreaks.

Europe also saw significant impacts when Storm Ciara swept through Ireland, the UK and several other countries in February.

It resulted in 14 lives being lost and damages of $2.7bn.

Christian Aid stress that these figures for financial costs are likely an underestimate as they are based only on insured losses.

Richer countries have more valuable properties, and on the whole suffer greater financial penalties from extreme events.

Firefighters in the UK had to rescue a stranded driver whose car got stuck in floodwater during Storm Ciara. South Shore Fire Station

But financial losses don't convey the full impact of these storms and fires.

While South Sudan's floods weren't among the costliest in dollar terms, they have had a huge impact, killing 138 people and wiping out this year's crops.

Researchers say that the influence of climate change on extreme events is strong and likely to continue growing.


BBC Reality Check explains what the coronavirus pandemic has done for climate.

"Just like 2019 before it, 2020 has been full of disastrous extremes," said Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"We have seen all this with a 1C of global average temperature rise, highlighting the sensitive relationship between average conditions and extremes."

Fires raged in many parts of the western US across 2020. Reuters

"Ultimately, the impacts of climate change will be felt via the extremes, and not averaged changes."

"Unfortunately, we can expect more years to look like 2020 - and worse - as global temperatures creep higher."

While 2021 is likely to bring a similar story of losses from extreme events, there is some sense of optimism that political leaders may be on the brink of taking steps that might help the world avoid the worst excesses of rising temperatures.

"It is vital that 2021 ushers in a new era of activity to turn this climate change tide," said report author, Dr Kat Kramer, from Christian Aid.

"With President-elect Biden in the White House, social movements across the world calling for urgent action, post-Covid green recovery investment and a crucial UN climate summit hosted by the UK, there is a major opportunity for countries to put us on a path to a safe future."

Links

• Counting the cost 2020: a year of climate breakdown (pdf)
• Climate change: Extreme weather causes huge losses in 2020
• Conservation biologist: 'one year on from the bushfires, I feel an underlying sadness for the future'
• Fires and floods: Brace yourself for more of this, experts say
• Is climate change the crisis we forgot about?
• More than 60,000 koalas among three billion animals impacted by Australia's Black Summer bushfires
• 2021 will be cooler but still in top six warmest
• Have countries kept their climate change promises?
• Warmer winters linked to increased drowning risk
• COP26

(AU) Australia's Bushfires Among The World's Worst Weather Disasters 'Boosted' By Climate Change, Report Finds

SBS - AFP

Source: Getty

Australia's catastrophic bushfires were among a series of costly weather disasters that reflected the long-term impact of climate change, according to a new report.

The ten costliest weather disasters worldwide this year saw insured damages worth $150 billion, topping the figure for 2019 and reflecting a long-term impact of global warming, according to a new report.

The same disasters claimed at least 3,500 lives and displaced more than 13.5 million people.

From Australia's out-of-control wildfires in January to a record number of Atlantic hurricanes through November, the true cost of the year's climate-enhanced calamities was in fact far higher because most losses were uninsured.

Not surprisingly, the burden fell disproportionately on poor nations, according to the annual tally from global NGO Christian Aid, entitled "Count the cost of 2020: a year of climate breakdown".

"More than a quarter of the country was under water," said Shahjahan Mondal, a professor at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Munir Uz zaman

Only four per cent of economic losses from climate-impacted extreme events in low-income countries were insured, compared with 60 per cent in high-income economies, the report said, citing a study last month in The Lancet.

"Whether floods in Asia, locusts in Africa, or storms in Europe and the Americas, climate change has continued to rage in 2020," said Christian Aid's climate policy lead, Kat Kramer.

Locust swarms across East Africa following an unusually rainy season at the end of 2019 destroyed crops, trees and pastures, threatening food security. Luis Tato

Extreme weather disasters, of course, have plagued humanity long before manmade global warming began to mess with the planet's climate system.

But more than a century of temperature and precipitation data, along with decades of satellite data on hurricanes and sea level rise, have left no doubt that Earth's warming surface temperature is amplifying their impact.

Massive tropical storms - variously known as hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones - are now more likely, for example, to be stronger, last longer, carry more water and wander beyond their historical range.

2020's record-breaking 30 named Atlantic hurricanes - with at least 400 fatalities and $41 billion in damages - suggest the world could see more such storms as well.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) had to use Greek symbols after running out of letters in the Latin alphabet.

Christiana Figueres is a founder of the Global Optimism group and was head of the UN climate change convention when the Paris agreement was achieved in 2015.

Extremes, not averages

Intense summer flooding in China and India, where the monsoon season brought abnormal amounts of rainfall for the second year running, are also consistent with projections on how climate will impact precipitation.

Five of the most costly extreme weather events in 2020 were related to Asia's unusually rainy monsoon.

"The 2020 flood was one of the worst in the history of Bangladesh, more than a quarter of the country was under water," said Shahjahan Mondal, director of the Institute of Flood and Water Management at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Wildfires that scorched record areas in California, Australia and even Russia's Siberian hinterland, much of it within the Arctic Circle, are also consistent with a warmer world, and a predicted to get worse as temperatures climb.

The planet's average surface temperature has gone up at least 1.1 degrees Celsius on average compared to the late 19th-century, with much of that warming occurring in the last half-century.

The 2015 Paris Agreement enjoins the world's nations to collectively cap global warming at "well below" 2C, and even 1.5C if feasible.

A landmark report in 2018 from the UN's IPCC climate science advisory panel showed that 1.5C is a safer threshold, but the likelihood of staying below it have grown vanishingly small, according to many experts.

"Ultimately, the impacts of climate change will be felt via the extremes, and not average changes," noted Sarah Perkins-Kilpatrick, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Centre.

If the growing frequency and intensity of natural weather disasters is consistent with modelling projections, the new field of attribution science is now able to put a number on how much more likely such an event is due to global warming.

Five of the most costly extreme weather events in 2020 were related to Asia's unusually rainy monsoon. Erik De Castro

The unprecedented wildfires that destroyed 20 per cent of Australia's forests and killed tens of millions of wild animals in late 2019 and early 2020, for example, were made at least 30 per cent more likely, according to research led by Friederike Otto at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute.

In Europe, meanwhile, the chance of deadly heatwaves occurring has risen nearly 100 fold compared to a century ago, according to recent research.

"Heatwaves and floods which used to be 'once in a century' events are becoming more regular occurrences," noted WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Links

• Counting the cost 2020: a year of climate breakdown (pdf)
• Climate change: Extreme weather causes huge losses in 2020
• Conservation biologist: 'one year on from the bushfires, I feel an underlying sadness for the future'
• Fires and floods: Brace yourself for more of this, experts say
• Is climate change the crisis we forgot about?
• More than 60,000 koalas among three billion animals impacted by Australia's Black Summer bushfires
• 2021 will be cooler but still in top six warmest
• Have countries kept their climate change promises?
• Warmer winters linked to increased drowning risk