The forecasts from NOAA, the American agency for oceans and the atmosphere, had already anticipated it back in April: just four months into the year, 2020 had a 75 per cent probability of becoming a "historic" year for the climate crisis. Now the confirmation has arrived.

The first to set the ball rolling was Copernicus climate change service, the European programme dealing with climate change. 2020 was the hottest year on record, matching the temperature increase of 2016 (until now the hottest ever) at 1.25 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period average (1850–1900) and 0.6 degrees above the period preceding the one we are currently living through (1981–2010). The Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which falls under NASA, is of the same view. While for NOAA and the independent organisation Berkeley Earth, 2020 comes in second to 2016 by the slimmest of margins. An almost imperceptible difference.

What the annus horribilis teaches us

For everyone, then, 2020 was defined as an annus horribilis for the global climate too. The contrary would have been surprising. Whether one considers it first or second place, with 2020's record the last six years have been the hottest since measurements began. With the top three showing imperceptible differences among themselves.

For Copernicus, 2020 was also the hottest year on record for the European continent, at 1.6 degrees Celsius above the 1981–2010 average, with a margin of 0.4 degrees above the previous record, set in 2019.

Europe, then, is scorching. It is a hotspot of global warming. And yet not a single national newspaper devoted a front-page splash to report a fact that should relegate every other crisis — whether health-related or political — to second place. That did not happen. No one considered it important for their readers to know that the most significant anomaly for our continent occurred where it should be coldest: the Arctic and Siberia, both with a temperature increase of 6 (six!) degrees Celsius compared to the 1981–2010 average.

The climate crisis is not made of numbers

Data and figures, statistics and rankings, however, are only a small part of this story. As noted by the New York Times, the drama lies in an increase in heatwaves, hurricanes and extreme weather events, from the drought that leads to desertification and unprecedented wildfires to the floods that cause enormous damage, not only to human settlements.

The new (near-)record, moreover, occurred in the year of the La Niña climate phenomenon, which should "deliver" milder years owing to a cooler-than-usual sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean — the opposite of El Niño, which causes warming in the eastern Pacific. It should be noted, however, that the effects of La Niña — which began to manifest in September 2020 — are expected to show themselves this year. 2021, therefore, should not "break" the chain of consecutive records.

Given the scant coverage by media outlets and governments, one is left wondering what a year like 2020 was for, if it has not changed the ways in which we report on issues of global scope that are vital to every individual and community living on this planet. We "endured" a slowdown in greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, but this has not had and will not have any concrete effect unless the decline becomes a trend. What was the point of pausing if not even journalism has begun to change, to apply pressure, to follow the concerns of citizens (who have shown they care about their own future and that of generations to come) in the way it covers the news — what can one expect of those who have an interest in keeping the status quo firmly in place?

The climate crisis can be overcome collectively

This is a question we must reflect on, especially in these days when the way we communicate is undergoing a revolutionary period in the wake of the events in the United States. The very same United States that recorded a 10 per cent drop in CO2 emissions and that, if only it were able to maintain this trend, could move closer to the target of the Paris Agreement.

We must seize the opportunity and the spaces for change made available by an extraordinary year, in the broadest sense of the word, to prevent climate change from becoming so severe as to push us "to activate a mechanism of collective denial, aimed at sublimating a problem that overwhelms us and for which we are unable to find solutions", as written by Stefano Liberti in his book Terra bruciata. It is the last chance we have to build a future worthy of the name of the species we represent — sapiens sapiens.