Global Warming...New Report...and it ain't happy news

Wildfires, such as this one in Greece, released vast amounts of carbon dioxide in 2024


Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels jumped by a record amount in 2024 to push concentrations to their highest point since measurements began, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported.

Between 2023 and 2024, the global average concentration of CO2 surged by 3.5 parts per million (ppm) to reach 423.9 ppm, the WMO has said. This is the largest increase since modern measurements started in 1957 and is well in excess of the 2022 to 2023 increase of 2.3 ppm.

It marks the latest in a trend of accelerating annual increases, with growth rates tripling since the 1960s. The last time Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3 million to 5 million years ago.

Excess CO2 in the atmosphere will have a warming effect on the planet for centuries to come, the WMO warns. “The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbocharging our climate and leading to more extreme weather,” Ko Barrett at the WMO said in a statement.

Ongoing emissions from fossil fuels, alongside a surge in emissions from wildfires and a slump in the carbon uptake by the world’s lands and oceans, were the key drivers of last year’s record surge, according to the WMO.

Researchers expected a slump in the uptake of carbon by oceans, forests and other ecosystems in 2024 due to the recent El Niño weather pattern, which pushed up global temperatures and dulled carbon absorption by driving heat, fires and drought in key regions like the Amazon. The amount of tropical forest lost in 2024 was double that of 2023, scientists noted earlier this year. “It is normal for some tropical lands to be drier and store less carbon during warm El Niño years such as 2024,” says Richard Allan at the University of Reading, UK.

But there is concern that this dip in carbon uptake by the planet – particularly by the land – is part of a longer-term trend that could mean climate change is weakening the planet’s ability to soak up excess carbon.

“There has been some suggestions that the land sink was particularly low in 2023 and 2024, even for El Niño years, and that there has been a worrying reduction over time, particularly in the northern hemisphere outside the tropics,” says Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute. “In short, there are worrying signs that the land sink in particular is declining, but it’s too early to know with confidence without another few years of data.”

In the meantime, it is more urgent than ever for humanity to curb ongoing fossil fuel emissions, says Piers Forster at the University of Leeds, UK. “The biggest reason for the ongoing increase [in CO2 concentrations] is fossil fuel emissions being at a persistent all-time high and not yet coming down.”

Abstract

Meat consumed in cities is largely produced in rural regions. Supply chain opacity and complexity hinder understanding of (and the ability to address) the distributed impacts of urban meat consumption on rural communities and environments. Here we combine supply chain models with spatial carbon accounting to quantify and map the GHG emissions from beef, chicken and pork consumption—the carbon hoofprint—for all 3,531 cities in the contiguous USA. This carbon hoofprint totals 329 MtCO2e, equivalent to emissions from US at-home fossil fuel combustion. Surprising differences in the carbon intensity of meat-producing regions explain variation in per capita hoofprints between cities (500–1,731 kgCO2e). Demand-side measures such as reducing food waste and dietary shifts (for example, more chicken, less beef) could halve emissions. Our modelling highlights reduction strategies across the supply chain and provides a basis to address the transboundary impacts of cities.

Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time as global heating makes the country more hospitable for insects.

The country was until this month one of the only places in the world that did not have a mosquito population. The other is Antarctica.

Scientists have predicted for some time that mosquitoes could establish themselves in Iceland as there are plentiful breeding habitats such as marshes and ponds. Many species will be unable to survive the harsh climate, however.

But Iceland is warming, at four times the rate of the rest of the northern hemisphere. Glaciers have been collapsing and fish from warmer, southern climes such as mackerel have been found in the country’s waters.

As the planet warms, more species of mosquito have been found across the globe. In the UK, eggs of the Egyptian mosquito (Aedes aegypti) were found this year, and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) has been discovered in Kent. These are invasive species that can spread tropical diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus.