Hope you like it hot because the last decade has been the warmest in recorded history, and the planet isn’t cooling off anytime soon.
According to the latest State of the Climate report from the World Meteorological Organization, last year was officially the hottest on record, and the other top nine were all within the last decade. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide levels are at an 800,000-year high, glaciers are retreating at record speed and ocean temperatures have never been hotter.
“Our planet is issuing more distress signals,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned.
The earth is still on track to cross the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold set by international climate agreements, though technically it hasn’t done so for a sustained period—yet. But for the first time ever, global temperatures exceeded that limit for a full year in 2024. The reason? A dangerous mix of human-made carbon emissions and the naturally occurring El Niño phenomenon, which temporarily spikes temperatures.
To be clear, this isn’t solely an El Niño problem. The WMO stated this crisis is a direct result of human activity: burning coal, oil and gas like we’re not sitting in a planetary oven. And the consequences are escalating fast. Last year alone, there were at least 151 unprecedented extreme weather events. That’s everything from catastrophic hurricanes to unrelenting heat waves turning cities into death traps. Rising temperatures are fueling food shortages, displacing communities and racking up billions of dollars in economic losses.
“This is a wake-up call that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and the planet,” said Celeste Saulo, the WMO’s Secretary-General.
But here’s the reality: We’re out of time for “eventually” turning things around. The planet is changing faster than we are.
As Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate explains, “Phasing out fossil fuels is not a choice—it is an emergency response to a crisis unfolding before our eyes.”
For now, the question isn’t whether we can stop climate change. It’s whether we’re willing to.
