2021 heat records show how climate change is intensifying

Now that temperature data for 2021 is fairly complete, a fuller picture has emerged regarding just how much the planet warmed last year. One of these was that global surface temperatures last were somewhere between the fifth and seventh highest ever recorded. The increase in methane concentration is a source of great worry, since it’s an even more intensive planet heating gas than CO2. To put this into perspective the current UN-led global effort is to limit global heating to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial times by 2100. Some locations such as the Arctic have warmed by several degrees since pre-industrial times,” he said.