A new UN report shows glaciers are melting too fast
at the same time that sea levels keep rising.
These are two especially crucial gauges of our planet's overall
health center. Senior reporter Chloe Yellow has reviewed that
report and joins us now. So Chloe, what
does the report say? UN officials indicated that two
key signals of climate change are especially concerning from the
UN World Meteorological Organization, the state of global climate
2022 let's start with glaciers. Glaciers form from snow
that turns to ice and then moves downhill and melts
. They're very important because they provide fresh water to
millions globally and their shrinkage has direct impacts on climate
. According to that report, glaciers have lost mass
nearly every year since record keeping began. And in
2022 lost more mass than almost any other year since
1950 save 2019. In the Swiss Alps, a
record 6% of the glacier was lost. Well,
sea level rise is a crucial indicator as well.
The ocean absorbs 90% of excess heat in the atmosphere
. So that's more heat as the climate change increases
. This causes sea level rise because of molecular expansion
as water worms. But also as I mentioned before
, melting of things like glaciers and ice sheets,
sea level rise has been accelerating in recent years and
could rise by as much as 1 to 6 ft
by 2100. This puts as many as 160 million
people in the US and 600 million people globally at
risk because they live near a coast. The report
actually tracks seven key indicators of climate change when it
comes to temperature. The report noted that 2015 to
2022 were the eight warmest years on record. Dating
back to 18 52,022 was actually the fifth or sixth
warmest year. In spite of three consecutive cooling la
Nina climate patterns, concentrations of three main greenhouse gasses
reached observable highs in 2021. Meanwhile, ocean heat
content reached a new high in 2022. As I
mentioned earlier, the ocean helps reduce atmospheric warming by
trapping that excess heat, but it poses a risk
to ocean ecosystem and contributes to sea ice loss.
The ocean surface ph which is a way of measuring
ocean acidification is the than it's been in nearly 26,000
years and increasingly acidic ocean environment poses a big risk
to see organisms that rely, that humans actually rely
on. These numbers are pretty abstract, but there
are some concepts that are easier to understand like extreme
weather and factors like food insecurity. The world Meteorological
Organization's Secretary General said quote, while greenhouse gas emissions
continue to rise and the climate continues to change,
populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather
and climate events. East Africa, for example,
has been suffering from drought related to below average rainfall
for the past five wet seasons. It's estimated that
20 million people there face food insecurity drought. In
meanwhile, displaced about 1.2 million people who were forced
to flee to Ethiopia and Kenya. Now in Pakistan
, we have the opposite problem. Record breaking.
Rainfall has led to flooding that has killed 700 people
and displaced about eight million. All of that cost
about$30 billion. Europe, China, India and
Pakistan have been faced with heat waves leading to deaths
, hunger and displacement. These are all the very
real world consequences of ongoing climate change.