2021’s Climate Crisis Top Ten

From floods and wildfires to inaction and urgency: These are the top climate and weather stories of 2021

Rachel Ramirez, Brandon Miller and Bill Weir, December 22, 2021 (CNN)

“…The climate crisis took a catastrophic toll across the globe in 2021. From the Arctic to Louisiana and to China's Henan province, signs that climate change is already altering our weather were everywhere…As climate disasters mounted, the world aligned around combating the crisis: Scientists published a landmark report that concluded humans are unequivocally to blame; US President Joe Biden reentered the Paris Agreement in the early days of his administration; world leaders met at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to negotiate solutions.

But promises were not met with action in 2021, and humans are pumping more planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere than ever. Experts now warn that the Earth is currently on track for 2.4 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels -- far beyond the critical 1.5-degree threshold that scientists say we should stay under…These are the top 10 climate crisis stories of 2021…

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10. Historic rain at Greenland's summit…In August, precipitation at the typically snowy summit of Greenland fell as rain for the first time…It was the heaviest rainfall on the ice sheet since record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. And scientists say it will occur more often…

9. Texas deep freeze…February brought a historic deep freeze to Texas, which was also felt across much of the Central Plains and into the Southeast, and showed how the climate crisis can produce both hot and cold extremes…

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8. Fatal floods across three continents…In the span of a few weeks, destructive and fatal flash flooding ravaged parts of Western Europe, China's Henan province and the state of Tennessee…World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists that establishes the link between climate change and weather, found the record rainfall was up to nine times more likely due to human-caused climate change…

7. US rejoins the Paris Agreement…Within hours of being sworn in, Biden signed an executive order in January to rejoin the global climate pact…In April, Biden pledged to cut US greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030…However, the United Nations says there is still a huge gap between what's been promised and what scientists say is needed to curb emissions.

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6. UN report: A 'code red'…[The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found it] is "unequivocal" that humans have caused the climate crisis and that "widespread and rapid changes" have already occurred, some of them irreversibly…

5. A critical summit in Glasgow…And after nearly two weeks of negotiations on how to limit global warming, nearly 200 countries signed the Glasgow Climate Pact, which included the first-ever acknowledgment of the role burning fossil fuels have played in perpetuating the climate crisis…[but] negotiations around climate financing -- funding from wealthy nations to help low-income countries deal with the crisis -- broke down.

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4. Hurricane Ida…In late August, Category 4 Hurricane Ida destroyed homes, uprooted trees and cut off power to more than 1 million customers in Mississippi and the already storm-ravaged state of Louisiana…Ida checked all the boxes of how climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous…

3. December tornado outbreak…The last month of the year is typically the quietest for tornadoes, but warm temperatures brought a historic twist…Though it's not completely clear what role climate change played in December's outbreak, scientists say the fingerprints of global warming can be found on every extreme weather event…

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2. Pacific Northwest heat wave…All-time record temperatures were set across the region, and scientists say the heat wave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change… Officials later called the heat wave a mass casualty event…

1. Drought, wildfires and water shortages…The megadrought also primed the landscape for perilous wildfires. The three largest fires of 2021 -- the Bootleg, Dixie and Caldor Fires -- have burned roughly 1.6 million acres, an area half the size of Connecticut…Scientists say this summer is only a preview of what's to come…” click here for more

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