The world has warmed faster in the last decade than any other, as the 2001-2010 period brought ‘unprecedented’ climate extremes and high-impact weather events around the world, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization released July 3.

The report, titled ‘The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes,’ found that every year of the past decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest years on record, a period when deaths from heat jumped by more than 2,000 percent over the previous decade.

More than 90 percent of the countries in the WMO survey reported their warmest decade in 2001-2010, while sea level rise accelerated to a worldwide average of about 3 millimeters per year, roughly double the average annual rise of 1.6 millimeters in the 20th century.

Both hemispheres saw their warmest land and ocean temperatures, a period that also saw the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice and the accelerating retreat of mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Noting that a decade is the ‘minimum possible timeframe for meaningful assessments of climate change,’ WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud said the report shows that global warming was ‘unprecedented’ in the periods between 1991-2000 and 2001-2010.

‘Rising concentrations of […]