2020 Is Expected To Be Earth's Hottest Year On Record And There's No Escape From It

Today we¡¯re all locked down in our homes due to COVID-19, feeling depressed, desperately wanting to step out. However, one thing that helps us see the silver lining amidst the lockdown is that nature is healing and blessing us with better air quality, cleaner rivers among so many other factors. But, researchers feel that despite this, this year is going to get really hot.

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Reported first by the Guardian, researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reveal that there is a 75 percent chance that 2020 is going to be the hottest year recorded in the history of humanity.

Even with the massive reductions in emissions and pollution levels that we¡¯ve witnessed due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the effect isn¡¯t going to get any better, as scientists claim that a ton of greenhouse gases are already trapped in the atmosphere.

According to NOAA, even if this year isn¡¯t hotter than the hottest on record as of now (which was in 2016), it will surely claim a spot in the top 5 hottest years ever recorded.

University of Oxford climate scientist Karsten Haustein said in a conversation with the Guardian, ¡°The emissions will go down this year, but the concentrations keep on rising. We are very unlikely to be able to notice any slowdown in the built-up of atmospheric GHG levels.¡±

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She added, ¡°'But we have the unique chance now to reconsider our choices and use the corona crisis as a catalyst for more sustainable means of transport and energy production (via incentives, taxes, carbon prices etc).¡±

NASA¡¯s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has also revealed in their report that there¡¯s a 60 percent chance that 2020 will be passing 2016¡¯s record temperatures.

And from the looks of it, it won¡¯t be surprising. This year has been one of the hottest winters ever experienced, with the temperature reaching 20 degrees celsius in Antarctica during February, Even causing the bears in other parts of the world to not hibernate like they usually do, and putting them in harm¡¯s way.

The impact of such warming

Johan Rockstr?m in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) speaks about the ¡®tipping elements' that can cause catastrophe on our planet, like permafrost thaw, loss of methane hydrates from the ocean floor, weakening land and ocean carbon sinks, increasing bacterial respiration in the oceans, Amazon rainforest dieback, reduction of northern hemisphere snow cover, loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and reduction of Antarctic sea ice and polar ice sheets.

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And this all together will have a far greater impact on our lives on this planet, stating, "These tipping elements can potentially act like a row of dominoes. Once one is pushed over, it pushes Earth towards another. It may be very difficult or impossible to stop the whole row of dominoes from tumbling over. Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if ¡°Hothouse Earth¡± becomes the reality."