Climate, art, football and others: the year 2021 in ten records

From the CO2 emissions to the goals of Messi and Ronaldo, through contemporary art auctions and gigantic aerial evacuations, the AFP offers a summary of the year 2021 in ten records.

CO2 from fires

The fires raged during the boreal summer, especially in North America, causing record global CO2 emissions in July (1,258 megatons) and August (1,384.6 megatons), according to the European Earth observation service Copernicus, which linked this situation to the climate warming.

Gas through the roof

A stronger-than-expected economic recovery, the strength of Asian demand and the low level of reserves in Europe combined to make the price of gas shoot up like never before in early October. The reference price at the European level, the Dutch TTF, reached the record level of 162 euros per megawatt-hour on 6 October.

A giant airlift

The United States ended 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan in August with a gigantic airlift that exceeded the one deployed in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, although it did not manage to evacuate all the people who had worked for Westerners and are now threatened by the Taliban regime.

The operation allowed out 123,000 Afghan aliens and civilians, surpassing the 55,000 evacuated from southern Vietnam in 1975.

Chinese superpower

In early October, China carried out more than 50 incursions by military aircraft in 24 hours into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, reclaiming its power just two weeks after the announcement of a military pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States against Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Suez blocked

Measuring the length of four football fields and the height of a 20-story building, the container ship “Ever Given” ran aground on March 23 at the Suez Canal, blocking the navigation of this fundamental maritime axis.

The six days necessary to unblock it caused a huge and unprecedented traffic jam of 422 ships loaded with 26 million tons of goods, which aggravated the supply difficulties caused by the pandemic.

The rage of bitcoin

The bitcóin reached historic levels (US $ 68,513 on November 9), a sign of the growing furor over cryptocurrencies, seen by some as a means of protection against the return of inflation that shakes economies around the world.

Crazy about art

What do the paintings of Frida Kahlo, Pierre Soulages and Banksy have in common? Few other than the records reached by her works in auctions this year, such as the famous self-portrait of the Mexican artist sold in New York for US $ 34.9 million.

The accumulated sums in contemporary art sales have never been so high (US $ 2.7 billion in 2020-2021), also driven by the explosion of the market for certified unique digital works, the “NFTs”, which can be carried on a mobile phone.

Space tourists

Captain Kirk, the commander of the spacecraft from the Star Trek series, or rather his interpreter William Shatner is one of the twenty non-professional crew members who traveled to space in 2021. At 90 years old, the actor is the space traveler older.

Never has the list of galactic tourists been so extensive, with flights offered by the private companies of billionaires Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic).

Ronaldo vs. Messi

Two living football legends, Argentine Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, rewrote their names in the history of the sport in September.

The Argentine surpassed the Brazilian Pelé as the best scorer of a Latin American team (79 goals), and the Portuguese became the best scorer of all time in a national team (115) and in the European team that has been selected the most times for the national team (184).

La Mancha and Everest

Nepalese Kami Rita Sherpa, 51, improved his own record for climbing Everest in May with his 25th ascent to the roof of the world. For her part, the Australian Chloe McCardel, 36, became the person with the most swim crossings in the English Channel in October, 44 times.