Madrid, January 1, (The Conversation) As the year is coming to an abrupt close, he began wearing blue.
January 2021 marked a new Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development, which was declared by the United Nations. It will continue until 2030.
Josep Llus Pelegr, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences CSIC (ICM-CSIC), has explained to us what the goal of this initiative is: to promote management of oceans and coasts based scientific knowledge. This makes healthy oceans one of our pillars to the progress of all humanity.
It will be difficult, even impossible, to sustain development in sick seas.
They are home to a great biodiversity and act as a regulator of greenhouse gases.
Oceans 21 series was inspired by the start of this decade.
Over the past few months, we published a number of articles that describe the state of the oceans around the world and discuss some of their main problems, including noise pollution and climate changes.
New IPCC report
The evaluation provides new evidence to support the claim that climate change is due to human activities. The analysis shows that global warming is increasing and sea levels are rising. Extreme weather events (heat waves and torrential rains) have also increased in frequency and severity due to human activities.
Fernando Valladares, National Museum of Natural Sciences, believes that reducing greenhouse gases emissions requires slowing economic development, reorganizing, and limiting energy production, transforming transportation and reducing intensive agriculture and livestock, as well as transforming cities.
Reversing this trend is more difficult. Manuel de Castro Muoz de Lucas is Professor of Earth Physics at University of Castilla-La Mancha. He points out that even if we could drastically reduce emissions, it would take several centuries for the global average surface temperatures to return to their normal levels. pre-industrial.
2021, a year full of extremes. Some signs of this climatic acceleration may have been noticed during this year. It was first presented in Spain, where it was accompanied by a severe wave of cold and snow that paralyzed entire towns.
The storm Filomena was also a severe blow to families in a situation of energy poverty , as warned by Mara Teresa Critu Vilches (Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Sciences, IETcc – CSIC) and Miguel ngel Navas Martn (Carlos III Health Institute).
Storms and floods swept through Germany in summer as unusual heat waves ravaged the United States and Canada. Antonio Ruiz de Elvira Professor of Applied Physics at University of Alcal says that the problem in all cases is that there aren’t any protocols to deal with these phenomena.
The fires are the other main protagonists of summer. The current generation, which is becoming increasingly voracious and difficult for them to put out, is called the sixth generation.
“They release such an amount of energy that they are capable of developing their own behavior and generating erratic winds that allow them to spread in an unpredictable way”, alerts Rosa Mara Canals , professor of Agri-Food Engineering and Rural Areas at the Public University of Navarra.
The University of Lleida Vctorresco professor assures us we are entering an era of fires we cannot put out, those that can burn for several weeks or months and only go out when it is raining.
The climate summit 2021 is over with an important United Nations initiative, the Conference of the Parties ( COP26 ), which was held in Glasgow last November.
Researchers Pedro Linares (Comillas Pontifical University), Anna Traveset (IMEDEA – CSIC – UIB), Cristina Linares Gil and Julio Daz (Carlos III Health Institute), Gemma Durn Romero (Autonomous University of Madrid), Roberto lvarez Fernndez (Nebrija University ) and Vctor Resco de Dios (University of Lleida) gave us an assessment of the summit and the resulting Climate Pact , signed by 197 countries.
This meeting was a step forward. The meeting urged countries to review their emission reduction promises. Good intentions have also been expressed in the areas of economic aid to the most vulnerable regions, investment into health projects, and protection of forests.
However, there are still questions. One of those is the climate finance program and the list o contributors. On the other side, although it was suggested to end coal and aid in fossil fuels, no concrete measures have been taken.
All these aspects will be shaped over the coming years. The countries have agreed to meet in Egypt on November 2022 to discuss more ambitious emissions reductions. We will see if they arrive prepared. (The Conversation) CPS
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