The warmest decade since record keeping began 140 years ago was 2010 to 2019,

according to a NOAA and NASA analysis that was released today. The analysis also showed
that ocean temperatures were the highest they had ever been and that 2019 was the
second-hottest year ever measured. The authors of the report attribute the continuation of
global warming to emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

As the globe finally faced the effects of climate change, these warmer temperatures
contributed to a number of catastrophic disasters. The study is the most recent to support
the idea that things might get worse if nothing is done to reduce emissions. A lot of people
realized this decade that climate change is real, that it is already occurring, and that it might
very quickly grow much, much worse. A slew of tragic, dramatic, and fatal occurrences
occurred over these ten years, punctuating them. Communities were fundamentally altered
by hurricanes like Sandy, Maria, and Harvey, leaving wounds that haven't fully healed.
Communities all around the country and the world were forced into deadly heat waves by
increasingly powerful heat waves. Thousands of acres were destroyed by wildfires in a
matter of seconds. Countless climate records were broken. hottest year on record for the
atmosphere of the planet? Check. seas' hottest year on record? Also verify. Arctic sea ice
that is so small it has never before been seen? Check check check. There is no disputing
the driving force behind the developments. Extra heat is being trapped close to the surface
of the Earth as a result of steadily rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere,
mostly brought on by people burning fossil fuels. This causes the entire Earth to warm. As
changes ripple through the oceans, atmosphere, soil, rocks, trees, and every other living
thing on the earth, the result is both obvious—a hotter planet—and tremendously complex.

Leah Stokes, a specialist in climate policy at the University of California, Santa

Barbara, says, "God, this was a dreadful decade." "Let's lessen the badness of the next
one."

Reference:

Borunda, A. (2021, May 18). This decade broke all kinds of climate records-and not in a
good way. Science. Retrieved June 30, 2022, from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-decade-we-finally-woke-up-to-climat
e-change