OUR BURNING WORLD

IT'S LONG BEEN ESTABLISHED THAT climate change turbocharges wildfires, with drought, persistent heat, lightning storms, and dried vegetation all contributing to out-of-control blazes. That's just one reason a January report from the European Space Agency's Copernicus Climate Change Service came as such bad news. According to the release, 2024 was the first year global mean temperatures exceeded preindustrial levels by 1.6°C (2.88°F). That blows past the benchmark established by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, which sought to limit future warming to well below 2°C in the 21st century, with a preferred target of 1.5°C. Doing so would help limit the impact of a hotter planet.
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In Southern California, the report could be read by the light of a burning city. On Jan. 7 alone, four wildfires fed by 80 m.p.h. Santa Ana winds roared across Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes and forcing tens of thousands to flee. But everywhere, the earth is showing signs of heat swoon, with record high levels of water vapor in the atmosphere; record low expanses of sea ice around the poles; and record oceanic temperatures in the North Atlantic, Indian, and western Pacific Oceans.
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July 22, 2024, went into the books as the hottest single day ever recorded worldwide, with the average thermometer popping its top at a comparatively feverish 17.16°C (62.8°F). "All of the... global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850," said Carlo Buontempo...