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.
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]
A hundred people died and 18,000 were hospitalized in Japan while France reported 1,462 heat-related deaths in 2019, an 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 the 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 mainly occurred due to how scientists accounted for data gaps in the Arctic; the difference between first or second place is considered insignificant.[14]
Major tropical storms and hurricanes have also made an appearance during the decade, such as Hurricane Ida and Hurricane Ian. The more-than-average amounts of rainfall, higher ground covered, and the intensifying high-speed winds that accompanied both hurricanes were indirectly alleged to be products of rising sea levels and higher atmospheric temperatures.[19][20]
In 2020, a huge swarmofdesert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.[21][22] 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.[23][24][25][26]
Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota (both Category 4) 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.
Milieudefensie v Royal Dutch Shell was a case heard by the district court of The Hague in the Netherlands in 2021 related to efforts by multinational corporations to curtail carbon dioxide emissions. The case was considered a landmark ruling in environmental law related to climate change: while previous lawsuits against governments have prevailed for improving emissions, this was considered the first major suit to hold a corporation to the tenets of the Paris Agreement.[35] While the decision only has jurisdiction in the Netherlands,[36] it is expected to set a precedent for other environmental lawsuits against other large companies with high emissions that have not taken sufficient steps to reduce their emissions.[37][38][39][40][41] The impact of the court's decision was considered by legal experts to be strengthened due to its reliance on human rights standards and international measures on climate change.[42][35][37]
The Norilsk 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.[43][44] Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency in early June.[45] The accident has been described as the second-largest oil spill in modern Russian history.[46] 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.[43] 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.[47]
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 EnvironmentSussan Ley.[55]
^Vox.comArchived 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.
^The GuardianArchived 12 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Unseasonal rains have allowed desert pests to breed rapidly and spread across vast distances leaving devastation in their wake.
^Phys.orgArchived 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.
^EsquimereArchived 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.
^Business InsiderArchived 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,
^Scientific AmericanArchived 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. 15 May 2020.