The “2024 State of the Climate Report” just issued by a team of climate scientists finds that “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.” This is “a global emergency” in which “much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.”
The report, published in BioScience, found that fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024, and current policies are on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100.
Last year, we witnessed record-breaking sea surface temperatures, the hottest Northern Hemisphere extratropical summer in 2000 years, and the breaking of many other climate records. Moreover, we will see much more extreme weather in the coming years. As of 2022, global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes account for approximately 90% of these emissions, whereas land-use change, primarily deforestation, accounts for approximately 10%.
Escalating climate impacts are bringing forth “unprecedented disasters around the world” and “human and nonhuman suffering.” We find ourselves amid “an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence.”