August 12, 2020

expert reaction to State of the Climate in 2019 report

The report, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society,  looked at the world climate in 2019. 

Professor Richard Allan, Department of Meteorology and National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Reading, said:

“It is no surprise that 2019 concludes another warmest decade in the instrumental record. What is surprising is that governments have so far lacked ambition in tackling the cause of this observed climate change, primarily the continued emissions of carbon dioxide from energy hungry industrial and domestic activities. This comprehensive, state of the art report shows that rising carbon dioxide, temperatures and moisture in the air are as plain as day in the measurements and are driving more intense heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall events, melting ice and raising sea levels.”

Prof Simon Lewis, Chair of Global Changes Science, University College London, said:

“The new report from the American Meteorological Society is comprehensive and authoritative, written by 528 expert authors from sixty-one countries.  This is the thirtieth annual State of the Climate report and the long-term trends are crystal clear. Climate change is motoring along, fuelled by carbon dioxide emissions, with each decade since 1980 being warmer than the last. Impacts are mounting fast, ranging from deadly heatwaves to out-of-control forest fires. Humanity faces serious peril if we do not stabilize the climate by getting fossil fuel emissions to net zero, fast.” 

Prof Meric Srokosz, Marine Physics and Ocean Climate Scientist, National Oceanography Centre (NOC), said:

“The latest State of the Climate report (for 2019) confirms that the last decade was the warmest on record and that 2019 was one of the three warmest years since records began in the 19th century. The evidence for human-caused global warming strengthens year-by-year and decade-by-decade and can no longer be ignored.”

‘State of the Climate in 2019’ by Blunden et al was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society at 15:00 UK time on Wednesday 12^th August.

DOI: 10.1175/2020BAMSStateoftheClimate.1

Declared interests

Professor Simon Lewis: No interests to declare.

None others received