In the past few years, a deluge of extreme weather events and ecological disasters has shocked the world. The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in the last 30 years, while studies point to surging sea levels and continuing catastrophe. These are the most shocking climate change-related events from recent years, which show why we can't ignore the climate crisis any longer.
Read on to discover the reasons why we need to act now to save our planet...
Tragically, the vibrant colours for which Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is best known are fading fast. On 25 March 2022, the marine park’s authority confirmed that this precious ecosystem, which extends along more than 1,400 miles (2,300km) off Australia's northeast coast, had been hit by its sixth mass bleaching event in history. Bleaching occurs when corals are under heat stress so they release the algae which gives them colour. Scarier still, it was the fourth such event since 2016 and occurred in a cooler year, when scientists hoped corals might be able to recover.
In late May 2022 swathes of America were hit by a historic spring heatwave, with temperatures 11°C to 16°C (20°F to 30°F) above average in the mid-Atlantic and northeast. It’s estimated that more than 120 million Americans were affected by the record-breaking heat, with the National Weather Service issuing precautions about staying hydrated and taking breaks indoors.
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Skies turned red and hazy over Syria, Iraq and other Gulf countries between April and June 2022, due to unusually severe dust storms. The phenomena typically occur in arid and semi-arid climates, when dust and sand particles are picked up by heavy winds and sent into the atmosphere. While they're common in late spring and summer, they've arrived earlier and affected a much larger area this year, which experts say is linked to climate change.
A sweltering heatwave rippled across Japan in June 2022, with unbearable temperatures soaring above 35°C (95°F) for five days straight in Tokyo. Neighbouring Isesaki saw a record temperature of 40.2°C (104.3°F). It's been named as the worst heatwave since records began in 1875 and many were sent to hospital with heatstroke and heat exhaustion as a result.
According to research published in Nature Geoscience, winters with extremely large Azores High (a subtropical high-pressure system associated with anticyclonic winds) have increased dramatically from one winter in 10 before 1850 to one in four since 1980. The Iberian peninsula has been hit by increasing heatwaves and droughts in recent years as rainfall continues to decline, with May 2022 being the hottest on record in Spain. Researchers believe that these dramatic weather changes will severely impact food production and tourism in both countries.
A heatwave that hit southern parts of the UK beginning in July 2022 prompted the Met Office to issue its first-ever extreme heat weather red warning across much of England as temperatures were predicted to exceed 35°C (95°F). Such extreme heatwaves are now setting a worrying trend of becoming hotter, longer and more frequent each year. To combat the effects of the severe temperatures, London's historic Hammersmith Bridge was wrapped in giant pieces of foil to stop it from overheating.
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For the first time ever, the UK registered an inferno-inducing 40.3°C (104.5°F) at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, eastern England, on 19 July 2022, as the rest of the country sweated in 39°C (102.2°F) heat. Trains were cancelled, schools had to close and people were warned to stay indoors, before wildfires broke out across England. Wennington, on the outskirts of London, suffered the most, with 41 homes destroyed as fires ripped through the village due to extremely dry ground combined with searing temperatures. The London Fire Brigade said it was its busiest day since the Second World War. The aftermath (pictured) looked like a post-apocalyptic scene, and experts believe fires like these are likely to happen more frequently in the future due to climate change.
Nearly half of European Union countries suffered from drought in summer 2022 after prolonged hot and dry weather. Not only did this affect harvests, but the knock-on effects, like lower energy production and emergency water handouts, caused an increase in food and energy prices. Italy's River Po, pictured here, went on to experience its worst drought in 70 years.
To add to the growing evidence that Europe's summer of 2022 was abnormally warm, new evidence from satellite monitoring firm Copernicus has revealed that June, July and August were the hottest on record in the continent. It said that Europe's August temperatures were higher than any other year "by a substantial margin", while its research found that August 2022 was the third-hottest August globally since records began.
The world's glaciers haven't been in good shape for a long time now, but it seems that every year brings more bad news. A study published in August 2022 reported that losses from Greenland's glaciers alone have now locked in almost a foot (30cm) of global sea rise – that's roughly the same amount that seas have already risen from all causes in the last century. The research did not give a timescale, but stressed that the rise was now inevitable: even if planet-warming emissions ceased immediately and in their entirety, the damage is already done.
Ocean acidification is a process by which the sea's pH level falls over time, due to an increase in carbon dioxide levels. It can be disastrous for these ecosystems, limiting growth of corals, making it harder for species such as plankton to form shells and ultimately affecting the whole food chain. Worryingly, a study published in September 2022 revealed that the process may be happening up to four times as fast in the Arctic Ocean as in other bodies of water. This is because rapid melting of glaciers exposes the ocean to the atmosphere, meaning it absorbs carbon more quickly.
In September 2022, the world watched in horror as Hurricane Fiona tore through the Caribbean and the east coast of America and Canada. So it will come as sobering news that events such as this are likely to become more frequent and intense in future, due to the climate crisis. Warming temperatures are leading to an intensification of the water cycle, which leads to stronger rainfall, while increasing ocean temperatures are making hurricanes stronger as heat from the ocean is transferred into energy in the storm.
In 2022, Europe's summer was the driest on record since 1950, while in China the River Yangtze fell to extreme lows and water cuts were introduced across the western US to deal with shortages due to high temperatures. So it comes as concerning news that this unbearable drought was made at least 20 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to new research. Droughts of this magnitude could be expected once every two decades in the future – normally this kind of drought would be a one-in-400-year occurrence.
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A WWF report released in October 2022 revealed a sobering statistic: in less than five decades between 1970 and 2018, the world's wildlife populations plummeted by an average of 69%. To reach these findings, researchers studied almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 vertebrate species living across land, air and water. The data set, known as the Living Planet Index, highlights the double devastation of climate change and biodiversity loss, and particularly severe declines were found in Latin America and the Caribbean, where populations fell on average by 94%.
Alaska’s snow crab harvest was cancelled for the first time after billions of the crustaceans "disappeared" from the Bering Sea. While a promising eight billion were recorded in 2018, the 2021 report showed a drastic drop to just one billion. Officials cited overfishing as the reason, but its cause is connected with climate change. The warming seas surrounding Alaska are increasingly inhospitable for the snow crabs who seek temperatures below 2°C (28.4°F).
It might sound far-fetched, but a recent study has revealed that melting ice caps might be responsible for another pandemic in the future. That's because these frozen forms store viruses and bacteria, which could seep out and infect wildlife in the surrounding area as temperatures rise. The phenomenon has already happened, albeit at a smaller scale: in 2016, an outbreak of anthrax in northern Siberia was believed to be triggered by a heatwave, which made permafrost melt quicker than usual.
The stunning Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is located deep within the Arctic Circle and is home to the world's most northerly permanent settlement, Longyearbyen (pictured). But this idyllic landscape is under threat. Recent scientific studies have shown that Svalbard is warming at a rate that's six times faster than the global average, which is wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. Polar bears, whose hunting area has dramatically reduced in size due to melting ice, are struggling to find enough seals to eat so are having to turn to alternative sources of food such as reindeer instead.
Pictured here in January 2017, the village of Mouthe in eastern France is considered the coldest in the country: it recorded the nation's lowest ever temperature at just -36.7°C (-34°F) on 13 January 1968. The settlement, which sits at an elevation ranging between 3,051 feet and 4,757 feet (930m-1,450m), recently recorded its first October without frost in 140 years. Weather experts say the unusually mild conditions are linked to the climate crisis, with François Jobard from the national weather office Météo-France stating: "In 2022 we have changed gear".
In 2022, experts unearthed some important archaeological finds due to drought. But the impacts of climate change are also wreaking havoc on those discoveries. That's because many sites are experiencing swings between wildly different weather types, such as floods and drought, which is hampering scientists' ability to study and protect these important finds before they disappear. For example, in Iraq, various structures in Babylon have begun to erode due to high salt concentrations in water, which are linked to drought along riverbeds. Pictured here is Dolmen of Guadalperal which was unearthed following a drought earlier in 2022.
Most people wouldn't associate Africa with snow and ice. Yet the continent is home to a surprising number of glaciers, spanning sites like Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania (pictured). Sadly, by 2050 it's predicted that Africa could lose all its glaciers, and, worse still, that the melt-off is now inevitable regardless of further actions taken to combat climate change. That's according to a report by UNESCO, which was published ahead of the COP27 climate change conference.
According to a shocking recent UN report, the last nine years were the hottest the Earth has ever endured. That means the internationally-recognised target of keeping global warming within 1.5°C (2.7°F) is now "barely within reach", say the study's authors. Commissioned by the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the report starkly shows how increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are causing extreme and unpredictable weather events, rising sea levels and melting ice caps.
Rising water levels will affect every country on Earth, but to the island nations of the South Pacific they represent an existential threat. Here water temperatures are rising at three times the average global rate and severe cyclones annually batter the coast. For the last four years a task force in Fiji has been working out what to do with seaside settlements that will soon be underwater, and a 130-page report has now proposed a drastic solution: uprooting entire settlements house by house, and moving their population inland. Six villages have already moved, and at least 36 more will follow over the next five to 10 years.
Levels of 'earthshine' – also known as albedo – could be lowering due to climate change, meaning that the Earth quite literally looks darker than it did in previous centuries. Researchers at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in New Jersey measured the sunlight reflected from Earth onto the darker part of the moon at night, and found that – due to poor-quality cloud cover over the Pacific Ocean – the brightness is steadily diminishing. This, in turn, is linked to warming ocean temperatures, suggesting that the climate crisis is directly reducing our planet's shine.
Between August and November 2022, deadly flooding hit Nigeria, resulting in 600 deaths and causing some 1.3 million people to be displaced. The tragic event also badly affected the neighbouring nations of Chad and Niger and damaged some 500,000 acres of farmland. Now a shocking new study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) has revealed that the floods, which were among the worst the region has ever seen, were made 80 times more likely by climate change.
Spelling further bad news for one of the most beautiful ecosystems on the planet, in November 2022 it was reported that water temperatures over parts of the Great Barrier Reef had reached their highest November levels since 1985. That's according to data from the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The news has sparked fears that there will be another summer of coral bleaching, although scientists say that cooler climate conditions before February have a chance of preventing this.
At the beginning of January 2023, Europe experienced alarmingly warm weather with eight countries breaking national records and three breaking regional ones. The historic winter heatwave saw temperatures reach 19.6°C (67.3°F) in the Czech Republic, 19°C (66.2°F) in Poland and 16.9°C (62.4°F) in the Netherlands. Large parts of the Alps, usually blanketed with snow at this time of year, looked extremely sparse, causing closures and poor conditions at the range's many ski resorts.
California had an extremely wet start to 2023, with large parts of the state consumed by heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides. In fact, San Francisco had its second rainiest day since records began, with 5.46 inches (13.87cm) of rainfall downtown on New Year's Eve, which is more than a quarter of the average yearly total. Across the state, flooding and landslides meant roads had to close, while tens of thousands of people lost electricity supply. Pictured here is the Los Angeles River, which became strewn with litter and debris after flooding ripped apart homeless encampments.
Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa, Canada may be the world’s largest skating rink, but it wasn't able to open in 2023 for the first time in 50 years. The canal, which is UNESCO-listed, needs a steady temperature of -10°C to -20°C (14°F to -4°F) in order to freeze. However, Ottawa experienced one of its warmest winters ever recorded, and Canada’s environment minister described the skateway’s closure as "yet another example of how our climate is changing in Canada”. Pictured here is the popular attraction's closed gate.
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Antarctica’s sea-ice hit a new record low in 2023. There’s been "exceptional" loss around the continent since records began in the 1970s and this season's melt-off isn't even finished. Scientists say that while sea-ice behaviour is a complicated phenomenon, above-average warm air temperatures caused by climate change are contributing to its decline.
Ice lost from Greenland (pictured) and Antarctica over the last three decades could make up an ice cube 12 miles (19km) high. Melting ice sheets, due to global warming, account for a quarter of all sea level rise, and ice loss from the two polar regions have now been reliably tracked from space. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE) team, led by Northumbria University’s Centre for Polar Observations and Modelling, combined 50 satellite surveys of Antarctica and Greenland and found Earth's polar ice sheets lost 7,560 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2020, with the worst year being 2019. The study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data in April 2023, states the IMBIE project will be updated annually.
Officials confirmed that 17 lives have been lost on Mount Everest already this year, making it one of the deadliest seasons on record. And it’s not because of overcrowding, Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the director of Nepal’s tourism department, told The Guardian. "The main cause is the changing in the weather...it was very variable. Climate change is having a big impact in the mountains." Between five and 10 people die on Everest every year, but there's recently been a noticeable spike. 2014 remains the grisly benchmark when 17 people died, most of them local sherpas killed in an avalanche. The camp is located on the Khumbu Glacier which is becoming unstable and unsafe thanks to conditions created by global warming.
Average temperatures across the world in late June and early July 2023 were the hottest on record. Tuesday 4 July registered an average global air temperature of 17.18°C (63°F), according to US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, surpassing the day before's record of 17.01°C (62.6°F). For the seven-day period ending on Wednesday 5 July, the daily average temperature of .04°C (.08°F) was higher than any week in the last 44 years. Although NOAA could not validate the numbers, it did say: “We recognise that we are in a warm period due to climate change, and combined with El Niño and hot summer conditions, we’re seeing record warm surface temperatures being recorded at many locations across the globe.”
Autumn 2023 saw countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland all have their hottest Septembers on record. France saw average temperatures higher than in July and August, with the centre-west department of Vienne hitting 38.8°C (101.8°F) and heatwave alerts issued in September for the very first time. Germany, Poland and Austria also recorded temperatures close to 4°C (3.2°F) higher than average over the month. The Copernicus Climate Change Service said it expects 2023 to be the hottest year in human history.
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