Adam Beitman, adam.beitman@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, a report based on findings from NASA, NOAA, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, and Berkeley Earth was released showing that 2020’s temperatures rivaled those of the hottest year on Earth — the “super” El Niño year 2016. Last year’s temperatures breached this record without a boost from a heat-circulating El Niño event, revealing a sharp acceleration of global warming. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States experienced 22 billion-dollar disasters, the most ever, fueled by the dry conditions in the West and the above average heat across the country in 2020.
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which President-elect Biden has said he will immediately rejoin after Donald Trump’s unprecedented exit from the global pact, set a more firm limit of “well below” 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Scientists have made clear that warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius could cause severe, irreversible damage to the planet, including the loss of most of the globe’s coral reefs, increasing risks of a nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer and further destabilization of the polar ice sheets, locking in large-scale sea-level rise.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
“The increasingly dire costs of the climate crisis are clear, and they fall hardest on communities of color and the most vulnerable among us. This blaring alarm from the scientific community comes in the wake of catastrophic, unprecedented developments that we have collectively suffered through, including longer wildfire seasons and a record number of tropical cyclones tearing through the East Coast.
“That is why we must continue fighting for a bold, transformational agenda that recognizes the intersectionality between our planet and our humanity. At this critical moment, we need aggressive executive action from the Biden administration’s government-wide team of climate leaders to be matched by an equally ambitious climate action agenda in the new Congress.
“The choices we make together now will shape our society’s direction and the health of our planet for decades to come. These problems are people made, and they can be people solved if we are resolved to empower a cohesive, diverse movement that prevails over the injustices perpetrated by corporate polluters.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.