'The climate alarm is blaring'
Apocalyptic scenes have once again hit the news — this time from France and Spain.
Fires which started in July reached unfathomable heights this summer, in what Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is calling the “most severe situation” for the country since World War II.
We are in the midst of a war, not against our suffering planet, but with ourselves.
Breach
Our addiction to burning fossil fuels and exploiting the Earth for every last resource has driven the death of countless people and the destruction of countless animals and precious ecosystems.
The Earth’s climate is more out of balance than it has ever been, as 2015-2025 were the hottest 11 years on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate 2025 report.
Our ongoing carbon emissions are the indisputable root cause. The UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report 2025 found that nations are woefully off course to limit global heating to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C.
Nationally Determined Contributions are on track for 2.2°C–2.5°C, but current policies are projected for 2.8°C. The recent withdrawal of the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter, puts us even further behind.
We are already perilously close to exceeding the 1.5°C limit. 2024 was the hottest year on record, reaching 1.55°C, the first calendar year to breach this target. While monthly or annual averages over this limit do not mean we have failed, we are rapidly approaching it.
Devastating
More than 91 per cent of the excess heat from our emissions has been absorbed by the ocean, undermining its climate regulation capacity and pushing critical tipping points to the brink.
Glaciers and the Antarctic ice sheets and Arctic sea ice are melting quickly, reaching extreme lows in recent years.
Several globally significant impacts are resulting, such as the Super El Niño, which is causing wildly damaging events in multiple locations across our planet.
At the same time, it is now clear that Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which does much to govern oceanic heat circulation, has been slowing.