It was the year of COP26, where countries, meeting in Glasgow, pledged to save our planet from an impending climate crisis. Following are some events spurred by climate change from the year that was 2021.
Antarctica Not So Cold Anymore
This Adélie penguin left his home in the Antarctica and swam across 3,000 km of icy waters to wash up at Birdlings Flat, a small settlement on New Zealand’s South Island, The Guardian reported. Climate scientists saw it as a grim reminder of global warming and changed habitats. “First I thought it (was) a soft toy, suddenly the penguin moved his head, so I realised it was real,” Harry Singh, a local resident who found him, told the BBC.
‘Super rare’: Antarctic penguin washes up in New Zealand, 3,000km from home https://t.co/jGRGE76e5D
— The Guardian (@guardian) November 12, 2021
What? She Is Suffering From Climate Change
A Canadian woman in her 70s became the first patient in the world to be diagnosed as suffering from ‘climate change’. She was having breathing issues and doctors linked it to deadly heatwaves.
Giant Sea Gate to Save Manhattan
Aboard a 100-foot yacht, a group of scientists, engineers, politicians, architects and city planners sailed around Manhattan. Their mission: contemplate building giant steel gates in the waters that would protect New Yorkers from superstorms caused by climate change. The trip marked the ninth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. The group wondered what the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island would look like in 100 years if sea levels rise. (Manhattan skyline in a tweet from 2020 below)
The Manhattan skyline across the river at sunset, a view from @LICWaterfront #NYC
.https://t.co/umUh7HVHw4 pic.twitter.com/jIhCTIizJw— Gigi A (@gigi_nyc) March 3, 2020
Tuvalu Is Sinking
Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe gave a speech to the UN climate conference in Glasgow standing knee-deep in seawater to show how his island nation in the Pacific is threatened by rising sea waters. Kofe stood in a suit and tie at a lectern set up in the sea. The video was shot near Fongafale, the main islet of capital Funafuti.
Tuvalu's foreign minister gave a speech to #COP26 standing knee-deep in seawater to show how his low-lying Pacific island nation is on the front line of climate change https://t.co/O0spFPXAOx
— CNN (@CNN) November 9, 2021
Storms Unleash Scorpions
Hundreds of scorpions left their holes and moved into homes after heavy rain, hail and thunder in Aswan province in Egypt. Over 500 people were stung by the scorpions and had to be hospitalised.
??? #Scorpions flood Egyptian villages after storm, sting and hospitalize hundreds
Scorpions that were flushed from their underground desert homes by recent storms have stung more than 500 people in the governorate of Aswan, in southern #Egypt. https://t.co/LJqVOcfEY8
— ? Flora & Fauna ? (@Floris_et_Fauna) November 16, 2021
Worst Heatwave
More than 500 deaths were reported in northwestern US and western Canada by a heat wave that pushed up temperatures to an all-time high. US President Joe Biden said the heatwave was tied to climate change.
Worst Flooding
Catastrophic flooding left hundreds of people dead in western Germany and eastern Belgium. The flooding turned streets into torrents that swept away cars and brought down houses. A study, blaming climate change for the flooding, said catastrophic floods will be 14 times more frequent across Europe.
The photos of these European trains in the awful flooding are pretty wild. Not sure I’ve ever seen these kind of photos with flooding and trains before. This thumbnail i think is from from Dresden, Germany https://t.co/7W2ITQXp9r
— daviss (@daviss) July 17, 2021
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