As 2023 is coming to an end, let’s review ten major environmental events!

2023 is coming to an end and the new year is about to begin. In this year, we have experienced heavy rains and high temperatures, heard good news about the ozone hole, and bad news about the sixth mass extinction of species. In this article, we review the ten major environmental events in 2023, all of which are still developing dynamically.

Global warming

2023 will be the hottest year on record .

According to data recorded by ERA5, the global average temperature in the first 11 months of this year increased by 1.46°C compared with the average level from 1850 to 1900, and July was confirmed as the hottest month on record.

The El Nino event was confirmed in June this year. Although the heat wave was affected by El Nino, the continued warming caused by human activities is still the main factor causing the high temperature . "As long as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, we cannot expect the climate to improve in the future," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

ERA5 is the fifth generation of atmospheric reanalysis data set of the global climate from January 1950 to the present by ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts)｜pixabay

According to the UK Met Office, the global temperature is likely to exceed the 1.5°C limit for the first time in 2024. In the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, countries agreed to develop a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions, clearly setting 2°C as the upper limit of global warming and 1.5°C as a more ideal goal. If this limit is exceeded, a series of problems such as rising sea levels, ecosystem collapse, and food supply will overwhelm human society.

Frequent extreme weather

Along with global warming comes frequent extreme weather events.

In January of 2023, Europe experienced record high winter temperatures, with the lowest temperature in France reaching 11°C at night on New Year's Eve. In February, the northeastern United States was hit by a severe cold wave, which placed a huge burden on regional electricity and transportation, and many areas of the United States experienced record low temperatures.

Entering the summer, the country was affected by the typhoon "Dusurui", and extremely heavy rainfall broke out in North China, causing severe flood disasters in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The extreme high temperature in summer caused more than 100 deaths in India, and many people also suffered symptoms such as fever and difficulty breathing. In addition, the high temperature in summer also caused wildfires to spread around the world. In June, the billowing black smoke from the Canadian wildfires brought great pressure to the fire department, and also caused serious haze pollution in American cities such as New York. In August, a serious wildfire broke out in Hawaii, with the fire area exceeding 6,000 hectares, causing a lot of social and economic losses.

Canada Wildfires | Corey Hardcastle

According to the latest analysis by Save the Children, at least 12,000 people will die in extreme events such as floods, wildfires and hurricanes worldwide in 2023 .

COP28

In December this year, the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) was held in Dubai, UAE. After consultations and negotiations, the conference finally reached the "UAE consensus" on a number of issues.

The meeting held its first "Global Stocktaking". The Global Stocktaking assessed the current progress of global climate action. If all current national voluntary contributions are fully implemented, the global average temperature rise can be controlled within the range of 2.1-2.8°C by 2100. Considering that the global temperature rise to 2°C will face more severe climate challenges, the "UAE Consensus" is determined to further limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C.

A nationally determined contribution is a climate action plan aimed at reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts. Each party to the Paris Agreement must set a nationally determined contribution plan and update it every five years. Pictured at COP28 | New Scientist

The "UAE Consensus" also mentioned the elimination of fossil fuels for the first time , calling on countries to "reduce their dependence on fossil fuels", expand the scale of renewable energy, and accelerate the development of zero-carbon and low-carbon emission technologies. In terms of climate financing, the meeting also urged developed countries to implement investment commitments and fully achieve the goal of raising $100 billion annually by 2025.

Clean Energy Hydrogen Boom

As fossil fuels (such as coal and oil) accelerate global warming, people have begun to focus on the search and development of clean fuels. This time, hydrogen has taken center stage.

Hydrogen has a high energy density, which means that a small amount of hydrogen can produce considerable energy . Using more hydrogen can reduce global carbon emissions and is of great significance to social energy transformation. It is precisely because of these excellent qualities that many companies and research institutions have joined the hydrogen energy craze.

An unpublished study by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that Earth may have 1 trillion tons of hydrogen stored in its gaseous form, enough to meet growing demand for fuel and fertilizer for thousands of years to come .

The U.S. Geological Survey has launched a research alliance with the support of Chevron and BP; the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency of Energy has also launched a $20 million natural hydrogen research and development program. The Olympic torch of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will use hydrogen fuel. This year's Asian Games in Hangzhou, as the first "carbon neutral" Asian Games, also opened a "hydrogen refueling station" with a hydrogen refueling capacity of 500 kg/day, which can meet the hydrogen refueling of 50 hydrogen fuel buses or public buses.

Hydrogen Energy Utilization Station in Hangzhou｜Hangzhou Binjiang Green Transportation Integrated Energy Station

Antarctic Carbon Pump

The ocean is an important source of carbon sinks on Earth, and the Southern Ocean is a very important part of the ocean carbon sink. Thanks to the circulation movement, the water on the ocean surface can move to the deeper layers and bring heat, oxygen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the sea to achieve carbon sequestration.

However, a study published this year in Communications Earth and Environment found that the circulation has slowed by as much as 20% since the 1970s. Similar studies have also found that the speed of deep-sea currents has also slowed significantly. The slowdown in the circulation has led to a slowdown in carbon sequestration, exacerbating the climate change crisis .

Melting Antarctica's glaciers may slow ocean currents | pixabay

There is no clear answer to why this phenomenon occurs. However, some scholars believe that the fresh water produced by the melting of Antarctic glaciers may be the main reason . The increase in fresh water reduces the mass of the surface water of the ocean, making it difficult to sink and slowing down the speed of carbon sequestration. As global warming continues, the melting of glaciers will continue, and the circulation may continue to be affected.

Japan releases nuclear wastewater

On August 24, 2023, the Japanese government officially discharged the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Japan claims that the nuclear wastewater has been processed through the domestically developed Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which can reduce more than 60 radioactive substances in the contaminated water to below international standards, except for carbon 14 and radioactive tritium. After conducting experiments, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Japan believe that the impact of nuclear wastewater discharge on the ocean is minimal, and pointed out that no enrichment of tritium was found.

However, authoritative journals such as Nature and Science pointed out in their reports on the safety of nuclear waste water that there is still no conclusion on the impact of other radioactive substances and the hazard assessment of long-term emissions .

Fukushima started the first round of nuclear waste water discharge into the sea on August 24 | Reuters

The discharge of nuclear waste water not only triggers potential environmental crises, but also acts like a landmine in the hearts of residents in coastal countries and regions.

Consensus reached on high seas protection treaty

After more than a decade of negotiations, UN member states finally reached the first treaty to protect the high seas, the High Seas Treaty. Currently, two-thirds of the world's oceans are considered high seas, but only 1% of them are protected . The high seas are not only affected by fishing, shipping traffic, etc.; while the ocean fixes carbon, it also causes seawater acidification, posing a potential threat to marine life. Therefore, the issue of protecting the high seas is imminent.

The High Seas Treaty urges countries to include high seas waters in protected areas to ensure the health of the ocean and its creatures . To protect the high seas, fishing, shipping, and deep-sea mining may be restricted. Deep-sea activities will also be required to conduct environmental impact assessments before they are carried out to ensure their safety.

Deep-sea mining machine descends to Pacific Ocean floor | Reuters

Recently, the European Union also announced that it would allocate nearly 820 million euros for international marine protection. UN Secretary-General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres welcomed the treaty, saying: "We are finally beginning to make a peace treaty with nature."

Red Sea oil crisis resolved

On August 11, 2023, at 18:00 local time, the United Nations successfully transferred 1.14 million barrels of oil stored on the "Safety" to the replacement tanker "Yemen" , avoiding an imminent large-scale oil spill.

Since 1988, the "Safety" has been moored about nine kilometers southwest of the Ras Issa Peninsula on the west coast of Yemen. In 2015, due to war disputes, the production, unloading and maintenance of the "Safety" were forced to stop, facing the risk of disintegration or explosion, and the resulting oil spill would have disastrous consequences for Yemen and the countries along the Red Sea.

Red Sea oil transferred to the Yemeni | UN News

The United Nations has been working on a response plan since September 2021. The first phase of the plan intends to transfer the oil to a safe alternative vessel, the "Yemen". With the arrival of the "Yemen" in Yemeni waters, the oil transfer operation officially began. At present, the first phase of the plan has been successfully completed, and the next step is to install a catenary anchor leg single point mooring system (CALM) so that the replacement oil tanker can be safely fixed to it.

The United Nations is actively raising funds for this oil transfer operation, but there is still a funding gap of 25 million to be resolved.

The sixth mass extinction

A study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) warns that the Earth is experiencing its sixth mass extinction of species, this time caused solely by human factors .

Research shows that over the past millions of years, animals have been going extinct 35 times faster than the historical norm (i.e. without human influence). According to research from Queen's University of Belfast, 48% of species on Earth have begun to decline due to human activities .

It is estimated that 40% of amphibians are at risk of extinction. The picture shows the Mexican axolotl｜Wikipedia

Humans are accelerating species extinction due to habitat destruction, illegal trade and climate change, with scientists saying up to a million species are threatened with extinction, many of which could disappear within decades .

Ozone hole

With the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons, the once devastated ozone layer finally has hope of recovery. On January 9, 2023, a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) pointed out that the ozone layer above the stratosphere has recovered significantly , and if the current state is maintained, the ozone layer over the Antarctic, Arctic and other parts of the world is expected to return to its original state around 2066, 2045 and 2040 respectively.

Antarctic ozone hole on September 21, 2023 | NOAA

However, just a few months later, the U.S. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered while monitoring ozone concentrations that things might not be so optimistic.

On September 21, satellite data showed that the Antarctic ozone hole reached an area of ​​10 million square miles, the 12th largest ozone hole since 1979. Considering that the Antarctic ushers in spring from September to December each year, the appearance of sunlight prompts the ozone layer to react rapidly with chlorofluorocarbons, and the impact of the Tonga volcanic eruption on the stratosphere has not subsided in 2022, so the area of ​​the hole is not surprising. Overall, the ozone concentration has improved slightly this year .

Will the future be better? Individual efforts seem insignificant, and the speed of environmental degradation is far beyond imagination. Paying attention to environmental issues and taking action in daily life may be the only thing we ordinary people can do. At least, some good things happened this year.

Author: Xiao Xiaoze

Editor: Little Towel, Mai Mai

Title image source: United Nations News