Blogs

Climate Chage Blog 59 –

In order to keep the Facts on the Ground section from consuming the Blog, I have selected a representative sampling of the impacts from climate change. The number, size, lethality and cost of the impacts keep growing. Alarmingly so.

In early April, floodwaters covered highways from Arkansas to Ohio, schools in waterlogged communities canceled classes and river towns across the South and Midwest piled up sandbags ahead of expected intense rain and major floods prompted by an outbreak of tornadoes and heavy winds. The storm destroyed homes and businesses, killing at least seven people in three states. The storm system was stalled over a stretch of the country from Texas through the northeast, with the most intense rain falling around Arkansas and Tennessee. More than 30 tornadoes were reported in Mississippi, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana and Tennessee.

Six people in Mississippi were injured in the early April storms, and at least 60 homes were damaged. In Muncie, Ind., thousands of people were without power after heavy winds snapped power poles and toppled trees. In Hendricks County, Ind., a 27-year-old man died after he came into contact with downed power lines. Extended flash flood warnings were issued for the Memphis area including Nashville. The continued wailing of tornado sirens in Nashville drained some siren batteries, silencing them.

Across Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere, officials warned of increasingly treacherous road conditions. In Carlisle, Ark., the school district informed parents that buses might not be able to reach some students’ homes due to flooding and in southeast Ohio, several highways were closed. In Glasgow, Ky., murky brown polluted water covered roadways, and a semi-truck flipped over because of the wind prompting the closure of an interstate, with at least 25 state highways blocked by floodwater. State police rescued several people stranded in their homes and vehicles.

On the outskirts of Moscow, Tenn., where a tornado warning was issued, two people were killed after a tornado struck a modular home. A 46-year-old mother was trapped under her house and was taken by emergency workers to the hospital in critical condition. Four fatalities were reported in Tennessee due to the storms. Over 21,000 customers were without power in Memphis and severe weather impeded efforts to restore it. In Craighead County, Arkansas, four people were injured from the storms and 22 counties reported damage to the state’s emergency management department. About 18,000 homes lost power.

A wildfire, dubbed “the Silver fire”, which started in late March in eastern California, spread rapidly to 1,250 acres, prompting evacuations in parts of Inyo County and Mono County and closed a 30-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 6. Efforts to combat the flames were hampered by strong winds that grounded aircraft.

A powerful storm struck the Greek islands of Paros and Mykonos in late March, causing severe flooding. On the island of Paros, the torrential rains battered the island’s popular Parikia and Naousa tourist sites and turned the streets in Paros into raging rivers, sweeping away cars, debris, and mud, leaving residents stranded and buildings inundated with polluted floodwater. The schools in Paros were closed due to the floods and weather-warning alerts were issued advising residents to stay indoors. All traffic was banned. On the neighboring island of Mykonos, authorities deployed excavators to clear pathways for the surging floodwaters that swept past seaside restaurants.

In late March, at least six people were killed and more than 730,000 customers were without power in the Great Lakes region after a spring storm produced freezing rain and sleet. Among the fatalities were three children who were killed after a tree struck their vehicle in Michigan. Also, severe crosswinds in Valparaiso, Ind., blew a tractor-trailer on its side, killing the driver. The severe weather caused an Amish buggy to overturn, killing its driver in Elkhart County, Ind. In Montgomery County, Ind., a downed tree in a roadway caused a driver to swerve into a head-on collision that killed a driver.

State officials in Michigan activated the State’s Emergency Operations Center after the ice storm downed trees and power lines making some roads impassable. The ice storm was unusually long-lasting over several days, and produced more ice than usual. Many customers were without power: 48,000 in Wisconsin, 40,000 in Indiana and 340,000 in Ontario, Canada.

In late March, floodwaters inundated South Texas and cities in Mexico, dumping half a year’s rainfall in less than 48 hours obliterating records and prompting the closure of schools. Torrential rains produced 10 to 15 inches in parts of Texas where flash flood warnings were in effect. Hidalgo, Willacy and Cameron counties, all located on the southern tip of the state along the Mexican border, were hard hit by the heavy storms for about 48 hours. Three deaths were reported in Hidalgo County after almost 20” of rain fell in the Rio Grande Valley, prompting the county to issue a ‘declaration of local disaster.’  Residents of Willacy County, Tx., were stranded in their homes while waiting to be rescued after about 12 to 15” of rain drenched the area in six hours.

Multiple cities in South Texas reported record amounts of rain for late March, with 12” falling in Harlingen, and 11” in McAllen, within a 24-hour period. The semiarid region along the border with Mexico usually receives about 25” annually. Flash flood warnings were active in Brooks, Cameron, Hidalgo, Kenedy, Starr and Willacy counties, with the Weather Service warning of life-threatening flash flooding. A flood watch was in effect for more than 5.4 million people in South and Southeast Texas and southern Louisiana. In the Cameron County city of Harlingen, nearly a year’s worth of rain fell in less than 48 hours and triggered extensive flooding. Between 18 and 21” of rain fell over parts of the city within a 3-day period. Harlingen typically gets about 24” of rain in a year. Port Isabel, Texas, recorded half a year’s worth of rain after 13“ of rain fell within a 3-day period. Port Isabel’s deluge marks a 1-in-100-year rainfall event while Harlingen’s is close to a 1-in-500-year event.

The torrential rains in late March also drenched Mexico, killing one 83-year-old man who drowned in the floods in Reynosa in the State of Tamaulipas, with severe weather warnings issued for the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

At least 26 people were killed in the worst wildfires on record in South Korea in late March. The massive infernos spread rapidly, consuming hundreds of structures including two ancient Buddhist temples, both over 1,000 years old, and 317 buildings in the region. The blazes burned 88,000 acres in the country’s southeastern region and 26 people died in the blaze including a pilot whose helicopter crashed fighting the fires. At least 29 people were also injured, eight of them seriously. Over 27,000 people were evacuated including residents of the 600-year-old Andong Hahoe folk village, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The fires appeared to be “breaking the record for the worst wildfires ever,” South Korea’s then acting President Han Duck-soo, said.

Much of the West and Southwest faced unseasonably warm temperatures in late March, with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, recording temperatures of 10 to 20F degrees above average for the season.Phoenix hit 99F breaking the same-day record of 96 degrees set in 2022. Palm Springs, Calif., hit 100 surpassing the previous record of 97 set in 1988.

In late March, record warm nighttime temperatures were recorded in the Netherlands, with 12.9C (55.22F) reported for Eindhoven, a national record for the warmest night recorded for the month of March for the Netherlands. The previous record was 11.5C set in 1951. A record nighttime high for March of 12.2C was reported for Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport), surpassing the previous record of 11.5C set in 1951. In Hoek van Holland, 12C was reported, equaling its warmest night in March.

In mid-March, a giant cross-country storm system brought rain, snow, hail, dust, fire and tornadoes, battering California with an atmospheric river, fueling wildfires in Oklahoma and spawning tornadoes from Missouri to Alabama. Parts of Texas had a severe dust storm that felt like Mars. Huge stretches of communities across the Midwest and South were reduced to rubble. At least 40 fatalities due to severe weather conditions were reported across seven states, with over 40 million people, mostly in the Plains, under a red flag fire warning.

Almost 100 tornadoes were reported which destroyed homes and left huge debris fields in their wake. In Poplar Bluff, Mo., over 500 homes were destroyed. In Alabama, 52 of the state’s 67 counties reported damage. Mississippi was struck by two separate tornadoes in one day. The extreme weather conditions were “a high-end severe event”, the Storm Prediction Center said.

Hurricane-force winds fanned wildfires that spread rapidly in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Oklahoma was most impacted with over 400 homes and other structures destroyed. At least four people were killed in the state due to the extreme weather and 142 were injured.

Fierce winds produced dust storms and 12 fatalities on the roads in Texas and Kansas.  In the region around Lubbock and Amarillo in Texas, over three dozen car crashes resulted, with at least four fatalities. In western Kansas, eight people died in a vehicle pileup during the dust storm that created near-zero visibility conditions on Interstate 70; 46 people were hospitalized.

The damage sustained in Cave City, Ark., was attributed to 165 mph winds. At least 49 tornados were reported. At the badly damaged Qualls Funeral Home in Cave City, heavy burial vaults were flipped and scattered on a concrete slab that a day earlier had been a storage building behind the funeral home.

Severe storms pounded parts of Louisiana and Mississippi with tornadoes touching down near Kentwood, La., Jackson, Miss., Pike County, Miss., and Tuscaloosa County, Ala. Central Mississippi and Alabama faced the highest risk warning, level five, in the Storm Prediction Center’s rating system. The Weather Service issued tornado watches for eastern Louisiana, nearly all of Mississippi and the western half of Alabama, which they described as facing a “particularly dangerous situation. Only 7% of tornado watches receive this extra warning.

A tornado struck Tideland Drive in Bridgeton, Mo., damaging houses in the area. A gazebo became airborne and flew off into the forest like the home from “The Wizard of Oz,” a local resident said. At least one person died. Over 500 homes, a church and grocery store were also damaged. The storms were all connected to an intense system causing devastation across the central US.

In mid-March, a major heatwave, nicknamed "The Mother of All Heatwaves," struck Algeria, Libya, Turkey, Cyprus, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Temperatures in Algeria and Libya reached 41°C (105.8F), while Turkey and Cyprus exceeded 33°C. The heatwave also brought the earliest 30°C temperatures on record to Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. This heatwave broke numerous temperature records by the largest margins ever recorded.  

In mid-March, over 150 fires across Oklahoma destroyed nearly 300 structures and burned close to 200,000 acres with one fatality reported. The fires were fueled by low humidity, dry vegetation and hurricane-force winds. Governor Stitt declared a state of emergency for 12 counties (her barn buned). Mark Goeller, director of Oklahoma Forestry Services, called the disaster “historic.” In 40 years with the agency, he had “never seen anything as bad as what we saw.” The largest fire, the 840 Road fire in western Oklahoma, burned nearly 30,000 acres. A red flag warning was in effect in parts of the Panhandle and western Oklahoma. In Stillwater, Ok., a mandatory evacuation order was issued for several square miles. The active blazes also caused Oklahoma State University to cancel sporting events. A strong storm driving gusty winds and dry air across a parched landscape fueled dangerous fire conditions across a wide region of the country, from eastern New Mexico and Colorado to parts of the Midwest. In Camden County, Mo., a fire destroyed about 30 structures and the authorities urged people to stay off the roads as clouds of thick, red dirt and even thicker clouds of billowing dust severely limited visibility.

In the region around Lubbock and Amarillo in Texas, over three dozen car crashes and at least 4 deaths were reported with emergency workers battling a heavy dust storm as they searched for people trapped in their vehicles. About 38,000 customers were without power across northern Texas and parts of Oklahoma. Texas residents of McLean and Alanreed were evacuated due to the threat of fire and at least two semi-trucks flipped over on Interstate 40 due to wind gusts which reached 101 mph, diminishing visibility and making travel treacherous.

Narsarsuaq, Greenland experienced its hottest nights ever recorded in March with temperatures of between 10C to 14C (50F-57.2) reported for multiple days. The temperatures did not dip below 10.9°C, which is 20C above the normal temperature for March and even higher than the average July temperature in the region, marking a historic level of warmth for Greenland in March.

In February, the Arctic experienced a severe climate emergency with temperatures significantly above average across most areas. The highest anomaly was 10.6°C and daily anomalies reached 20°C in some regions, causing the Arctic Sea ice to reach historic lows for February. This extreme warming and ice loss are part of a larger trend of shrinking Arctic Sea ice due to global warming. I’ve been writing about the global implications of this and will continue to do so. (See below.)

In March, Eastern Europe experienced exceptionally high nighttime temperatures, breaking records for the hottest March nights in several countries, with a minimum temperature of 18.4°C (65.12F) in Vlorë, Albania (the hottest March night in Albania's history). 14.0°C was reported in Gjirokastër, 12.2°C in Vranje, Serbia, 16.4°C in Aktio, Greece, and 11.7°C in Ribnita, Moldova. Additionally, maximum temperatures exceeded 30°C on the northern coast of Turkey. These record-breaking temperatures indicate a trend of increasing heat stress in Europe, particularly in southeastern Europe.

What forecasters called an “unusually strong” storm system for this time of year across the south and central US, prompted the cancellation of some Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans in early March.

A Tornado watch was in effect in portions of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in early March as a storm crossed the Southwest with its winds kicking up a major dust storm in New Mexico, prompting the closure of some highways. The Storm Prediction Center issued its highest-level risk warning for “extremely critical” wildfire conditions in portions of Texas, including San Antonio and Austin. Southeastern areas of New Mexico were added to the extremely critical risk list. The Storm Prediction Center also issued an enhanced risk in for eastern South Carolina, eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, warning of severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts and tornadoes.

Rare downpours in mid-February pommeled a large stretch of the Lower Mississippi Valley, from western portions of Kentucky and Tennessee and extending to southwestern Virginia. “This is unprecedented for mid-February, at least in the last 20 years,” per the Weather Service. Highway 160 in Knott County, Ky., was closed due to a landslide, and floodwaters in Elizabethtown were at record levels, with some homes in Perry County evacuated. Parts of two dozen state highways were partially or fully flooded. Emergency crews rescued people and pets from flooded buildings and stranded cars. In Tennessee, some roads in the western part of the state, were flooded.

Snow and wind pounded the Sierra Nevada in mid-February, creating huge delays on highways with cars spinning out. “So far this has been the largest snow maker that we’ve seen in the Sierra this season,” the Weather Service said. The severe storm swept into California in early February, releasing torrential rainfall in the north and the south, where wildfires had left the landscape especially vulnerable to mudslides and debris flows. When the system arrived in the Sierra, a mass of cold air was in place, which enabled the storm to produce more snow and at lower elevations. Almost two feet of snow within a 48-hour period was recorded around Lake Tahoe. The storm delivered a flurry of snow with Mammoth Mountain, in the Central Sierra, recording 50.” “The snowfall rates were some of the biggest we may have ever seen. We are no stranger to big intense storms here, but we had snowfall rates of four inches an hour with this storm”, Steven Mace, the director of operation at the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, said.

Between early and late January, 14 destructive wildfires affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California. Two of the largest fires, the Palisades (the most destructive in the history of LA) and Eaton fires, ranked among the most deadly and destructive blazes in California history. The wildfires razed neighborhoods destroying over 18,000 houses and structures, killed 30 people, forced the evacuation of over 200,000 people and burned over 57,000 acres.

Palisades Fire: In early January, a number of large and small fires began to form a ring of blazes around LA. The largest was the Palisades fire along the Pacific Coast, which burned more than 23,400 acres in January. The fire forced the evacuation of 105,000 people, including along the Pacific Coast Highway, in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Santa Monica. The Palisades fire destroyed more than 6,000 homes and businesses according to Cal Fire. The Palisades fire also destroyed local landmarks in some of the most affluent areas of LA, including Palisades Charter High School, the alma mater of numerous celebrities and a filming location for many television shows, including “Modern Family.” The fire destroyed the ranch house that the entertainer Will Rogers owned until his death in 1935, and the Topanga Ranch Motel, which appeared in several films. Several beachfront properties in Malibu were destroyed by the wildfire. Dozens of cars abandoned on highways during evacuations were completely incinerated by the flames, with bulldozers having to push several vehicles aside for firefighters to pass. Multiple celebrities' homes were burned. Former US swimmer Gary Hall Jr. said he lost his ten Olympic medals (including five gold medals) in the fire. The Palisades fire killed 12 people, and human remains were found in a destroyed house in Malibu. “I thought we were prepared,” LA’s County’s fire chief, Anthony C. Marrone, a 39-year veteran of his department, said. “And we were prepared. As prepared as we could be. And it wasn’t even close to being enough.”

The fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades consumed not only trees, brush and timber but also lead acid car batteries, plastic pipes, synthetic furniture, paint and other potential sources of contamination. “All of those materials tend to soak up a lot of the gases, and then over the next month they’re going to release it back,” Paul Wennberg, a professor of environmental science and engineering at the California Institute of Technology, said. Particulate sampling 20 miles south of the Eaton fire had detected high levels of toxins, including lead, chlorine and bromine in the air. Ninety percent of the homes in the Altadena were built more than a half-century ago, when lead paint and asbestos were still used in home construction. At the height of the LA County wildfires, atmospheric concentrations of lead, a neurotoxin, reached 100 times average levels even miles from the flames. Levels of chlorine, which is also toxic at low concentrations, reached 40 times the average. The spiking levels underscore the added danger from wildfires when cars, homes, and other structures burn. Lead is often present in paint and pipes used in older homes, while chlorine and other chemicals are generated when plastic melts or combusts. The levels of lead in the LA wildfires exceeded the EPA’s long-term safety limits.

As of late January, the Palisades Fire had destroyed 6,837 homes and other structures and burned a total of 23,707 acres. Twelve people were killed in the Palisades fire, with 4 people injured, 7 people missing, and 105,000 people were evacuated.

Eaton Fire: The next largest wildfire was the Eaton fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Pasadena in southern California which was first reported in early January. Within six hours, the Eaton Fire had grown to 1,000 acres fanned by strong winds. The Terraces at Park Marino evacuated 95 senior citizens, many in wheelchairs and wearing only gowns. Evacuations were later expanded in Pasadena and in northern Sierra Madre and Arcadia. The AltaMed Medical Center and several homes in Hastings Ranch were "engulfed in flames". The Eaton Canyon Nature Center was destroyed resulting in the deaths of about fifteen lizards, and over 100 animals were taken to the Pasadena Humane animal shelter, many with burn injuries.

Within a 24-hour period, the Fire had burned 10,600 acres. The high winds that fanned the Eaton fire also pumped smoke and soot into thinly insulated homes. In the Kinneloa Mesa neighborhood, Max Pellegrini, a local resident said the inside of his home was coated in a quarter inch of “dirt and ash and whatever else.” He believed his $12,000 yearly insurance premiums would go up or that private insurers might abandon his neighborhood altogether.

As of late January, the Eaton fire had burned 14,021 acres, destroyed 9,418 structures and killed 18 people (all fatalities were in the west of Lake Avenue neighborhood in Altadena, which belatedly received emergency evacuation orders, hours after residents on east Altadena had received their evacuation orders), with 8 people injured and 24 people missing. Over 100,000 people were evacuated.

Other Fires: The Hurst Fire started in early January and burned 50 acres within 10 minutes, growing to 100 acres within 30 minutes, prompting immediate evacuation orders for all affected areas north of the Foothill Freeway. More than 44,000 people were given evacuation orders, with an additional 27,000 receiving evacuation warnings. The Kenneth Fire was first reported in early January. It ignited along a trailhead in the West Hills neighborhood of LA. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for the area and evacuation warnings ordered for areas east of Valley Circle and for parts of Oak Park. In late January, the Hughes Fire was reported on the east of Castaic Lake in northern LA County. It burned over 3,400 acres within a 2-hour period prompting mandatory evacuations for settlements near the lake. The Hughes fire burned 10,425 acres, prompting the evacuation of over 30,000 people, and an additional 20,000 people placed under evacuation warnings. The Border 2 Fire started in late January and burned 6,625 acres in the Otay Mountain Wilderness prompting many school closures and issuance of several evacuation orders.

Other notable impacts of the Southern California Fires: Economic impact: In January JPMorgan estimated that the insured losses from the fires was more than $20 billion, which is a US record for wildfire-related insurance claims surpassing the previous record of $12.5 billion in insured damages set by the 2018 Camp Fire. The total economic loss is predicted to be $50 billion by JPMorgan. Power outages: In early January in the LA metropolitan area alone more than 200,000 people were without power. Closures: The Pasadena Unified School District, the LA Unified School District, and 23 surrounding school districts announced closure of all schools in their districts in January due to the fires. NASA closed its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Over 150 employees of NASA’s JPL lost their homes in the fire. Entertainment and sports industries: Several Hollywood entertainment headquarters and production centers were closed due to the high winds and wildfires, with public events postponed and several sporting events were also canceled or postponed due to the fires.

In mid-November, typhoon Usagi made landfall on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, the fifth major storm to hit the country in a three-week period. The four earlier storms, Toraji, Trami, Yinxing and Kong-rey, caused over 100 fatalities and devastation. Over 24,000 people in the Cagayan Province were evacuated. Storm Usagi had a maximum sustained wind of 150 mph (a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic). “Typhoons are overlapping,” “As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again”, Gustavo Gonzalez, a local U.N. official said. In mid-November 2023, four tropical storms swirled at the same time in and around the South China Sea and the North Pacific, a historic first for the Region in November since records began.

In late October, Typhoon Kong-rey, the most powerful storm to hit Taiwan in nearly three decades, left one person dead and over 200 people injured. Schools, offices and financial markets were closed and thousands of people were evacuated with hundreds of flights grounded. Over 11,000 people were evacuated in cities and counties. Kong-rey was the most powerful typhoon to hit Taiwan in 28 years. Typhoon Kong-rey struck Taiwan after skirting northern Philippines which was pummeled by Tropical Storm Trami. Both storms cumulatively killed at least 139 people with over 21 people missing.

In Spain, some of the worst flash floods in decades struck in late October with torrential rains battering southern Spain, leaving thousands of people stranded in their vehicles and homes, all inundated by the floodwaters. At least 95 people died and many others were missing prompting the government to declare three days of national mourning.

Thousands of households were without electricity or a phone connection, and over twelve municipalities reported having no clean drinking water. In the city of Valencia and its surrounding areas, water had flooded ground-floor apartments and trapped residents. Shopping centers, dog shelters and a nursing home were inundated killing some elderly residents. The flooding also swept away residents caught in its fast-moving currents. Some of the villages most impacted by the flood remained cut off, with roads and bridges that connected them to the rest of the country damaged or destroyed. Dozens of roads were closed, including major highways. Three of Valencia’s subway lines collapsed, and train services were suspended. “The entire regional road network is seriously damaged”, Óscar Puente, Spain’s transport minister, said. The flash floods left thousands of vehicles abandoned and submerged in layers of thick mud on streets and highways, with the bodies of dead occupants trapped in some vehicles.

The Amazon rain forest both absorbs immense amounts of atmospheric carbon and supplies the earth with oxygen. It has enormous influence on weather patterns and seasonal rainfall. It is crucial to biodiversity. For the well-being of human health and the environment it must be preserved. But a recent study shows we are doing everything but that. Perhaps half of the Amazon rainforest could transform into grasslands or compromised ecosystems in the next few decades due to climate change, deforestation and severe droughts. Such stresses could collapse the entire forest ecosystem, home to a tenth of the planet’s land species, into acute water stress and past a tipping point from which there would be no recovery.

In fact, the southeast portion of the Amazon has suffered so much deforestation, followed by fires, that it has flipped from a carbon sink to a carbon source and may now be damaged past recovery. Scientists are alarmed by this discovery and warn that if more of the Amazon follows this path, the disruption to the planet’s stability, in terms of temperature, rainfall, oxygen and more could be overwhelming. The study urged governments to halt carbon emissions, stop deforestation, and actively restore at least 5% of the rainforest.

A UN report issued in early November 2025 states that wealthy nations are falling woefully short in funding poorer nations. Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, wealthy nations agreed to financially aid poor nations that have contributed negligible GHG emissions to climate change. The aid was intended to help countries reduce their GHGs, by building solar or wind farms. Wealthy nations provided $28 billion in aid for climate adaptation in 2022, but the report estimates that developing nations need between $187 billion and $359 billion annually in additional funding to cope with climate change disasters. Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Accord as he calls climate change a “hoax” and he in not inclined to offer such aid.

Global temperature continues to rise and at least 171 countries have a national climate adaptation plan in place. To effectuate such plans financial aid is essential.

“Trump’s victory is a profound blow to global climate justice,” said Harjeet Singh, global engagement director at an activist group called the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. His “refusal to provide climate finance will deepen the crisis,” Mr. Singh added, “endangering lives and livelihoods — especially in regions least responsible for, yet most impacted by, climate change.”

U.N. officials argue that it is in the self-interest of wealthy countries to help poorer countries adapt to reduce the risk of mass displacement and potential conflict. “Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Program. “Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now.”

At the November 2024 meeting of world leaders at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, the research group, Climate Action Tracker, issued a report finding that the goal of the 2015 Paris Accord to limit global warming to 1.5C is likely unattainable and that we are well on our way to experiencing a rise of 2.7C (4.9F). The impacts of climate change at 1.5C are already evident and include deadly heat waves, wildfires, drought, storms and species extinction, and all will be orders of magnitude more lethal above 1.5C such that the future of human civilization is severely threatened.

The world is warming because global energy demand is growing faster than clean energy is expanding, with fossil fuel filling the gap. Many countries have pledged to reach zero emissions by around midcentury and if they do, warming might be limited to roughly 2.1C the report said. But many countries have not met their pledges.

The US contributes about 13% of global GHG emissions. If Trump makes good on his promise to cut support for clean energy and electric vehicles while dismantling environmental regulations, that could add a few tenths of a degree Celsius of warming by 2100. If other countries follow Trump’s lead, global warming may be greater.

Dr. Glen Peters, with Climate Action Tracker, wrote, exceeding the 1.5C threshold “does not mean the world has failed.” Climate change risks increase with every fraction of a degree, so it is important to cut emissions as quickly as feasible to prevent further warming. But, he added, focusing on an unrealistic temperature limit “is no longer useful.” “Crossing 1.5°C is not a time to give up,” he wrote, “but a time to acknowledge our failures and find a new hope moving forward.”

As the world’s countries fail to reign in GHG emissions global warming continues at a record-breaking pace: 2023, 2024 and now January 2025 all set records for warmth. The implications of this are endless but one troubling result is that northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, north of the Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea all warmed to the point that Arctic sea ice reached a record low. This initiates a positive feedback loop that may now be irreversible: white ice reflects sunlight but as it melts it exposes darker water that absorbs the light and warms which melts more ice, etc. Arctic ice functions as global air conditioning and the planet warms without it which contributes to the feedback loop. This may also be contributing to changes in global weather patterns including rainfall upon which civilization depends for agriculture and functioning ecosystems.

Melting polar ice also contributes to sea level rise. Since 1993, when satellite recordings began, and 2023, the rate of SLR has more than doubled, with average global sea levels rising by 10cm (3.93 inches). NASA attributed the rise to warming oceans (thermal expansion) and melting glaciers. Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA, said the “rate of rise is getting faster and faster.” The rate of SLR in 2024 was 0.59cm (0.23”) per year which exceeded their estimate of 0.43cm (0.17”) per year. In prior years NASA attributed two-thirds of SLR to run-off from land-based glaciers. But, due to global warming, two-thirds of the SLR in 2024 was due to thermal expansion.

As seas rise and warm and fuel stronger storms, the UN has warned of the dangers to millions of people living along coastlines of India, Bangladesh, China and the Netherlands, as well as island nations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Warming seas fuel the destructive force of powerful hurricanes that have killed 1,000s of people and have caused billions of dollars of damage ruining lives and businesses in increasing amounts each year.

Another danger of a warming world and melting ice is the infusion of fresh water which could collapse the critical ocean current AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current) which keeps Europe from entering into another ice age. Its collapse could produce extreme and disruptive weather to Europe and elsewhere causing severe interference to food production and rapid changes to which natural systems could not adapt. Also surface ocean water could stop moving quickly into the ocean depths as it currently does which would stop bringing oxygen and critical nutrients to deeper waters disrupting the base of the marine food chain upon which humanity depends. Without these life-giving nutrients, the North Atlantic ecosystems could crash.

An international team of scientists concluded in a study published in early March that fresh water from melting Antarctic ice is projected to weaken the world’s most powerful ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current by 20% in the next in the next 30 years. A weakening of the ACC, which is also one of Earth’s strongest climate engines, would have dire consequences, including more and warmer ocean heatwaves, major alterations to rainfall patterns and acceleration of regional SLR as well as “more climate variability, with greater extremes in certain regions, and accelerated global warming,” lead author Bishakhdatta Gayen, an associate professor of fluid mechanics at the University of Melbourne, said. The ACC is the only ocean current to flow around the entire planet unimpeded, carrying more than 100 times more water than all the world’s rivers combined. It is 100 to 200 miles wide and three miles deep as it circles Antarctica from west to east, mixing water from the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. The ACC runs off the shore of southern Australia and southern Africa and through the channel between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctica Peninsula, forming the “main mechanism for the exchange of heat, carbon dioxide, chemicals and biology across these ocean basins,” the researchers said. “Without that mixing, if the redistribution stops, you can start getting hot spots or cold spots,” Mr. Gayen said. If the ACC slows, there is an increased likelihood of marine heatwaves and associated impacts like toxic algal blooms.

The “unprecedented” rate of melting glaciers poses a risk to the food and water supply of 2 billion people, says a recent World Water Development Report 2025 from UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Two-thirds of all irrigated agriculture globally is likely to be affected by melting glaciers and dwindling snowfall in mountain regions, due to climate change. More than 1 billion people live in mountainous regions and in developing countries, nearly half are experiencing food insecurity. That is likely to worsen, as food production in such regions is dependent on melting snow and glaciers.

In the US, the Colorado River basin has been in drought since 2000, and higher temperatures mean more rain and less snow. Rain runs off more quickly than mountain snow, exacerbating drought conditions. Audrey Azoulay, the director general of UNESCO, said: “Regardless of where we live, we all depend in some way on mountains and glaciers. But these natural water towers are facing imminent peril. This report demonstrates the urgent need for action.”

The rate of change of glaciers is the worst on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, which publishes an annual state of the climate report. The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years, the study found, with Norway, Sweden, Svalbard and the tropical Andes among the worst-affected areas.

Eastern Africa has lost 80% of its glaciers in places and, in the Andes, between a third and a half of glaciers have melted since 1998. Glaciers in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the worst affected in Europe, have shrunk by about 40% over roughly the same period.

The decline of glaciers has had a further impact, added Abou Amani, director of water sciences at Unesco, in that the loss of ice replaces a reflective surface with dark soil that absorbs heat. “Glaciers melting have an impact on the reflectivity of [solar] radiation and that will impact the whole climate system,” he warned.

As snow and ice disappears the exposed soil warms which melts permafrost. This too starts a potentially irreversible positive feedback loop same as described above for melting polar ice. As the planet warms, reflective snow and ice melts which exposes the darker soil which absorbs the light and warms which melts more snow and ice which exposes more soil. And as permafrost melts it releases the potent GHG methane which super-charges the cycle as it adds to planetary warming.

Another potential run-away positive feedback loop threatened by a warming world is the discovery that bacteria produce more CO2 when bacteria thaws. Permafrost, which covers 15% of the Northern Hemisphere, is melting. Bacteria consume carbon in the permafrost and convert it to methane and CO2—both GHGs. Those gases are contained in frozen permafrost but are being released in the thaw. Permafrost contains twice as much carbon as is currently in the Earth's atmosphere, about 1,600 billion metric tons. The more warming, the more of these GHGs are released which produces more warming, etc. This could be significantly accelerating climate change.

A study published in February 2025 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, found that half of global glacier mass would be lost be the end of the century if global warming continues. Alex Brisbourne, a glacier geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey, said: “Mountain glaciers contain some of the largest freshwater reservoirs on Earth. Meltwater released in the summer provides the water supply to a billion people and sustains an enormous amount of industry and agriculture. The impact [of such melting] will be felt way beyond those immediately downstream of the glaciers.”

Globally glaciers are losing ice at an alarming rate, averaging 270 billion tons annually from 2000 to 2023, with a significant acceleration in recent years. Since 2000, mountain glaciers have lost more ice than the Greenland ice sheet and more than twice that of the Antarctic ice sheet.  Glaciers have been a major driver of SLR during these two decades: about 18mm of SLR is attributed to mountain glaciers since the year 2000, making glaciers currently the second-largest contributor to global SLR after thermal expansion.

In some regions, like the southern Andes and New Zealand, ice loss from glaciers is already surpassing the IPCC worst case projections for 2040, the researchers found. The alarming 40% ice loss in the European alps in the past 23 years is “absolutely beyond dramatic” says glaciologist Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, Deputy Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. She notes: “things are really accelerating”.

The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate Report published on March 19, 2025, confirms these findings. Glacier retreat increases short-term hazards, harms economies and ecosystems and long-term water security.” “The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, which was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13C above the 1850-1900 average.”

In 2025 CO2 levels reached a “Grim Milestone for Earth’s Polar Regions” crossing the 430 ppm mark “for the first time since records began, and likely for the first time in at least 3 million years”, as the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative puts it. This “raises a red flag that today’s fossil fuel emissions are pushing the climate into greater and more deadly extremes.” “Passing 430 ppm should be a wake-up call, especially given the accelerated response we are seeing of glaciers and ice sheets to current warming,” says Dr. James Kirkham, Chief Scientist of the Ambition on Melting Ice coalition of governments “ which includes Germany and Peru.

The most ambitious mitigation measures outlined by the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report to slow and reverse climate change have CO2 levels peak at 430 ppm. “Paired with the fact that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1880, rising above the 1.5C for the first time, these pressing realities serve as a distress signal for the planet”, as per the ICCI.

The State of the Global Climate 2024 report highlights the dangers of extreme weather in massive economic and social upheavals and the disruption from record ocean heat and SLR. “Today’s observations raise a clear signal that the Earth is responding to fossil fuel emissions faster and more intensely than anticipated”, writes the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. In 2024, ocean heat reached the highest level in the 65 years record have been kept, exceeding the previous year’s record; each successive year for eight years has set a new record for ocean heat content; and, the rate of ocean warming over the past two decades, 2005-2024, is more than twice that for 1960-2005.

Last year NASA launched a satellite to observe plankton. Jeremy Werdell, the lead scientist for the satellite program, called PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), asked, “Do you like breathing? Do you like eating? If your answer is yes for either of them, then you care about phytoplankton.” Phytoplankton are tiny aquatic algae and bacteria that photosynthesize to live off energy from the sun. They are eaten by zooplankton, the ocean’s smallest animals which are eaten by fish and larger animals. Phytoplankton are the foundation of the marine food chain, upon which humanity depends, and climate change is cracking that foundation.

Phytoplankton in the open ocean appear to be dwindling as ocean deserts are expanding. In other areas, warmer seas are leading to phytoplankton blooms which disrup coastal fisheries and livelihoods. Ecosystem balance and timing are key and they are being disrupted by climate change. Some phytoplankton blooms grow too big, too fast, and then they decay which depletes oxygen creating “dead zones” where nothing can live. Some phytoplankton produce toxins that sicken and kill fish, birds and mammals, including humans. These blooms cost the US economy about $50 million each year through damage to public health, fisheries and coastal recreation. Changes affecting phytoplankton reverberate affecting migratory patterns for many of the animals dependent on them including the largest predators, whales (including North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species with only about 370 individuals left).

“One can make the link between relentless CO2 increase and what’s happening to the right whales right now. And what’s happening to Calanus,” Dr. Jeffrey Runge, professor at the University of Maine, said. “It’s one of these really complex mechanisms of how CO2 increase and warming, the resulting warming, is affecting the ecosystems of the world.”

Washington:

On the first day of the second Trump administration, January 20, 2025, he again withdrew the US from the Paris Accords. He also signed an executive order that limited the approval of offshore wind farms. Empire Wind, a massive wind farm off of Long Island, had already been fully permitted and construction had begun but in mid-April his administration demanded the cessation of “all construction activities” on the project, which was designed to provide the electricity to power about 500,000 homes in New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul responded that she would “fight this decision every step of the way.” Two NJ Republicans, Chris Smith, and Jeff Van Drew, both wanted work stopped on this and other wind farms that were planned in the Atlantic Ocean to provide renewable power to New Jersey. New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, supports offshore wind for NJ’s rapidly growing demand for electricity.

The Empire Wind project was designed by Equinor, a Norwegian company, to produce 810 megawatts. It has secured $3 billion in financing and began construction on the project in 2024 with completion expected in 2027. Equinor is also building a port for its offshore wind project at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which supports 1,500 jobs. All of this is now in jeopardy.

Jason Grumet, the chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, a renewable energy trade group, said, “Doubling back to reconsider permits after projects are under construction sends a chilling signal to all energy investment.”

The executive order could cripple the US wind industry, which provides 10% of the nation’s electricity and is a major source of power in Republican-led states like Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. The wind industry currently has nearly 40 gigawatts worth of projects — enough to power tens of millions of homes — under development in the Atlantic Ocean and in states like Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.

“Wind power is an essential element of our ability to serve soaring electricity demand for manufacturing and data centers that are key to national security,” said Mr. Grumet. “The possibility that the federal government could seek to actively oppose energy production by American companies on private land is at odds with our nation’s character as well as our national interests.”

As part of the cost-cutting initiative headed by Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency, affecting over 400 federal agencies that regulate almost every aspect of American life from flying in airplanes to processing poultry, Trump’s appointees intend to dismantle much of the federal government and deregulate on a mass scale. By late April Trump requested a master list for the “deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state.”

In support of his agenda, Trump is relying on Supreme Court decisions to bypasses legal requirements that proposed changes to regulations be published for public comment. Instead, a White House memo says regulators should simply cancel the rules. A 2022 Supreme Court ruling limited EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. The other, in 2024, ended Chevron deference which acknowledged that certain federal agencies have specialized expertise, that Congress lacked, and deferred to agency judgment in interpreting their rules. Together, the administration is using these decisions to limit the broad regulatory authority of federal agencies and as justification to delete rules that had been promulgated prior to those decisions.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Donald Kenkel, a professor of economics at Cornell University who served as the chief economist to the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the first Trump administration. “It’s going on much more quietly than some of the other fireworks we’re seeing, but it will have great impact.”

Steve Cicala, co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Project on the Economic Analysis of Regulation, said “Many people don’t realize how high the American quality of life is because of the competent and stable enforcement of regulations, and if that goes away a lot of lives are at risk.”  “This affects airplane safety, baby formula safety, the safety of meat, vegetables and packaged foods, the water that you drink, how you get to work safely and whether you’re safe in your workplace.”

To quicken the deregulatory endeavor, Musk developed an AI tool to speed through the 100,000-plus pages of the Code of Federal Regulations and identify rules that might be vulnerable under their reading of the two Supreme Court decisions.  “There may well be many regulations they can revise or revoke in light of these recent Supreme Court decisions, but there are going to be very few they can simply revoke with a brief statement, as the president’s order suggested,” said Susan E. Dudley, a former regulatory official in the George W. Bush administration.

The White House also intends to simply stop enforcing certain rules while going through the legal notice-and-comment process to roll back certain rules, effectively ignoring them until they are off the books. That strategy relies on a 1985 Supreme Court decision, Heckler v. Chaney, in which Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote that where a federal agency ceased to enforce a rule, the courts would not interfere.

EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced on a single day in February, a list of 31 rules, from climate change to chemical pollution to wetlands protections to auto emissions, that the agency intends to roll back.