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The past seven years have been the hottest on record, according to new data from the EU's satellite system. The Copernicus Climate Change Service said 2021 was the fifth-warmest year, with record-breaking heat in some regions, and the amount of warming gases in our atmosphere continued to increase. Europe lived through its warmest summer, and temperature records in western US and Canada were broken by several degrees. Extreme wildfires in July and August burnt almost entire towns to the ground and killed hundreds.

Freja Vamborg, the senior scientist at the EU climate agency, Copernicus, explains how heatwaves have become more intense, and that "we expect, with a warming climate, both dry extremes and wet extremes to become more frequent". She also said that the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane, the key warming gases, continue to increase, despite lockdowns and a reduction in activities in many countries in 2021.

Photo: Locals evacuate the area with their animals as a wildfire rages in the suburb of Thrakomakedones, north of Athens, Greece, August 2021 Credit: Reuters