Thirteen of the warmest years recorded have occurred within the last decade and a half, proving that global warming is a reality, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday.
“Our science is solid and it proves unequivocally that the world is warming and that this warming is due to human activities,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement, adding that policy makers should take note of the findings.
This was true despite a cooling La Nina event — one of the strongest in 60 years — that developed in the tropical Pacific in the second half of 2010 and continued until May 2011.
“There is no single country that has reported 2001-2010 mean temperatures that are colder than their national long-term average from 1961-1990,” WMO Deputy Secretary General R.D.J. Lengoasa told journalists in Durban, citing a forthcoming review of weather trends over the last ten years.
“Urgent action is needed to prevent the worst climate change scenarios in the coming decades,” Lengoasa said.
Extreme weather events in 2011 — some influenced by La Nina — hit regions unevenly.
In central and south America, rainfall exceeding 200 millimetres (eight inches) in a few hours left at least 900 dead in the mountains north of Rio de Janeiro, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Brazil’s history.
For the second year in a row, Pakistan saw severe flooding, though more localised — in the south — than in 2010.
Over a 20-year span, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Honduras were shown to be most vulnerable to Nature’s violent outbursts, said the report, by European NGO Germanwatch.