2020s in environmental history

This is an environmental history of the 2020s. Environmental history refers to events and trends related to the natural environment and human interactions with it. Examples of human-induced events include biodiversity loss, climate change and holocene extinction.

Global issues

Anthropocene
Main article: Anthropocene

As of July 2020, neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) nor the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has officially approved the term as a recognised subdivision of geologic time,[1][2][3] but in May 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021,[4] locating potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-twentieth century of the common era.[5][4][6]

Biodiversity loss
Main article: Biodiversity loss

According to the 2020 United Nations' Global Biodiversity Outlook report, of the 20 biodiversity goals laid out by the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in 2010, only 6 were "partially achieved" by the deadline of 2020.[7] The report highlighted that if the status quo is not changed, biodiversity will continue to decline due to "currently unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, population growth and technological developments".[8] The report also singled out Australia, Brazil and Cameroon and the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) for having had one of its animals lost to extinction in the past 10 years.[9] Following this, the leaders of 64 nations and the European Union pledged to halt environmental degradation and restore the natural world. Leaders from some of the world's biggest polluters, namely China, India, Russia, Brazil and the United States, were not among them.[10]

Climate change
Main article: 2020 in climate change

The effects of climate change were manifest in 2020 with a record 30 named Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes; the highest heat in 80-years recorded at 54.4 Celsius; massive wildfires in Australia, the Western United States and the Arctic; and the second lowest annual Arctic sea ice coverage.[11]

A hundred people died and 18,000 were hospitalized in Japan while France reported 1,462 heat-related deaths in 2019, an El El Niño year. 2,800,000 people came down with dengue, leading to 1,250 deaths.[12]

The Milne Ice Shelf, on Ellesmere Island in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, collapsed in two days at the end of July 2020. This was the last fully intact Arctic ice shelf.[13]

Environmental groups declared that 2020 was at or near the hottest year on record. NASA said 2020 was tied with 2016, but NOAA said it was second or third. NOAA said 2020 averaged 58.77°F (14.88°C), a few hundredths of a degree behind 2016. Other groups (World Meteorological Organization, Copernicus Group, UK Meteorological Office) had slightly different measurements. The differences in rankings mostly turned on how scientists accounted for data gaps in the Arctic, and the difference between first or second place is considered insignificant.[14]

Holocene extinction
Main article: Holocene extinction

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature's 2020 Living Planet Report, wildlife populations have declined by 68% since 1970 as a result of overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming, which is further evidence that humans have unleashed a sixth mass extinction event.[15][16][17]

Natural events

Earthquakes and tsunamis during the decade include the 2020 Caribbean earthquake and the 2020 Zagreb earthquake. Wildfires included the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, 2020 Western United States wildfire season, as well as the 2020 Córdoba wildfires.

In 2020, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.[18][19] In tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic, this posed major hazards to billions of people who might be affected. Although experts had thought the insects would die out during the dry season in December 2019, unseasonal rains caused the incursion to reach unanticipated and hazardous levels.[20][21][22][23]

History by region

Africa

The 2019–20 locust infestation caused widespread devastation of food production in the Horn of Africa.

Central America

Hurricane Eta (Category 4) and Hurricane Iota (Category 5) hit the region in November within weeks of each other, creating much devastation to the same areas. At least 250 people were killed, with billions of dollars of damage to property.

Turkey

The 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake killed 117 people in İzmir (in addition to two in Greece) after 41 had died in the Elazığ earthquake in the same year, while the 2020 Iran–Turkey earthquakes killed 10. Forty-one people were also killed by the 2020 Van avalanches.

Russia

The Norilsk diesel oil spill was an industrial disaster near Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, that began on 29 May 2020 when a fuel storage tank at Norilsk-Taimyr Energy's Thermal Power Plant No. 3 (owned by Nornickel) failed, flooding local rivers with up to 21,000 cubic metres (17,500 tonnes) of diesel oil.[24][25] Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency in early June.[26] The accident has been described as the second-largest oil spill in modern Russian history.[27] As a result of the spill, up to 21,000 cubic metres (17,500 tonnes) of diesel oil spilled into the Daldykan River. Greenpeace Russia compared the potential environmental effects of the Norilsk spill to that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.[24] In the aftermath of the Norilsk spill, Russia's Prosecutor General's office ordered safety checks at all dangerous installations built on the permafrost in Russia's Arctic.[28]

Australia

The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season was particularly destructive, killing at least 28 and destroying no fewer than 3,000 homes. The fires were widespread, but New South Wales (NSW) was the hardest hit. In December 2019 the smoke around Sydney was so bad that air quality was 11 times the "hazardous" level and temperatures were over 40 °C (113°-120 °F). Natural causes such as lightning strikes started most of the fires, which were exasperated by dry conditions and drought, although police in NSW arrested at least 24 people for deliberately starting fires. In total, 7.3 million hectares (17.9 million acres) have burned across Australia's six states—an area larger than Belgium and Denmark combined. Experts estimate 500 million animals died, not including bats, frogs, or insects; one-third of Australia's koalas were killed, according to Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley.[29]

See also

References
  1. Edwards, Lucy E. (30 November 2015). "What is the Anthropocene?". Eos. 96. doi:10.1029/2015EO040297.
  2. "Subcomission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, ICS " Working Groups". quaternary.stratigraphy.org. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  3. Dvorsky, George. "New evidence suggests human beings are a geological force of nature". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  4. Subramanian, Meera (21 May 2019). "Anthropocene now: Influential panel votes to recognize Earth's new epoch". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01641-5. PMID 32433629. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  5. "Results of binding vote by AWG". Anthropocene Working Group. International Commission on Stratigraphy. 21 May 2019. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019.
  6. Meyer, Robinson (16 April 2019). "The cataclysmic break that (maybe) occurred in 1950". The Atlantic. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  7. Cohen, Li (September 15, 2020). "More than 150 countries made a plan to preserve biodiversity a decade ago. A new report says they mostly failed". CBS News. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  8. Yeung, Jessie (September 16, 2020). "The world set a 2020 deadline to save nature but not a single target was met, UN report says". CNN. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  9. Kilvert, Nick (2020-09-16). "Australia singled out for mammal extinction in UN's dire global biodiversity report". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 16 Sep 2020.
  10. Niranjan, Ajit (September 28, 2020). "Countries pledge to reverse destruction of nature after missing biodiversity targets". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  11. "UN calls on humanity to end 'war on nature,' go carbon-free". AP NEWS. 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  12. Climate change is more deadly than coronavirus (in Spanish) United Nations News, 10 Mar 2020
  13. "Canada's last fully intact Arctic ice shelf collapses". NBC News. Reuters. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  14. "Hot again: 2020 sets yet another global temperature record". AP NEWS. 14 January 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  15. Greenfield, Patrick (September 9, 2020). "Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – report". The Guardian. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  16. Briggs, Helen (September 10, 2020). "Wildlife in 'catastrophic decline' due to human destruction, scientists warn". BBC. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  17. Lewis, Sophie (September 9, 2020). "Animal populations worldwide have declined by almost 70% in just 50 years, new report says". CBS News. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  18. Vox.com Archived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The other plague: Locusts are devouring crops in East Africa and the Middle East Billions of hungry insects are threatening to cause famine amid the coronavirus pandemic. By Umair Irfan and Jen Kirby 20 May 2020.
  19. The Guardian Archived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Rolling emergency' of locust swarms decimating Africa, Asia and Middle East. Unseasonal rains have allowed desert pests to breed rapidly and spread across vast distances leaving devastation in their wake.Locust swarms threaten a "rolling emergency" that could endanger harvests and food security across parts of Africa and Asia for the rest of the year, experts warn. An initial infestation of locusts in December was expected to die out during the current dry season. But unseasonal rains have allowed several generations of locust to breed, resulting in new swarms forming. Huge swarms of locusts have been causing devastation across swathes of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Erratic weather conditions and storms have aided their path. As a result, countries have been battling the pests for months to avoid a hunger crisis.
  20. Phys.org Archived 14 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine Famine risk for millions in second locust wave. by Nelson Mandela Ogema, Fiona Broom, SciDev.Net, 28 May 2020.
  21. Esquimere Archived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Why are swarms of locusts invading the UAE and neighbouring countries? This is the biggest outbreak of locusts in 70 years. 27 May 2020, by Sarakshi Rai.
  22. Business Insider Archived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Locust swarms devour fields of crops in a single day that would feed 35,000 people – and COVID-19 threatens to make the pest problem even worse, Jessica Snouwaert 19 May 2020,
  23. Scientific American Archived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, NOAA is lending technical support to the United Nations in its battle against a massive locust infestation that’s spread from Africa into the Middle East and Asia. NOAA’s assistance is helping officials control the spread of the pests, but the U.N. says new desert locust swarms are advancing into India, threatening food supplies there. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall and devastating flash flooding are hampering efforts to knock out the infestation for good. 15 May 2020.
  24. "Diesel fuel spill in Norilsk in Russia's Arctic contained". TASS. Moscow, Russia. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  25. Max Seddon (4 June 2020), "Siberia fuel spill threatens Moscow's Arctic ambitions", Financial Times
  26. "Putin orders state of emergency after huge fuel spill inside Arctic Circle". The Guardian. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  27. Ivan Nechepurenko (5 June 2020), "Russia Declares Emergency After Arctic Oil Spill", New York Times
  28. "Arctic Circle oil spill: Russian prosecutors order checks at permafrost sites". BBC News. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  29. Jessie Yeung (Jan 14, 2020). "Australia's deadly wildfires are showing no signs of stopping. Here's what you need to know". CNN World. Retrieved Feb 8, 2020.
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