Earth has reached another climate milestone. Our planet had its second straight warmest year on record in 2024 to cap a decade of record heat.
What's happening?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has made it official: 2024 was the warmest year on the planet for both the United States and globally. According to NOAA, the global surface temperature was 2.32 degrees above the 20th-century average, topping 2023, the next-warmest year, by 0.18 degrees. This means the 10 warmest years on record have all happened in the past decade.
The United States also experienced record warmth last year. The contiguous U.S. also saw unprecedented warmth in 2024, with average temperatures soaring almost 4 degrees above normal — a record-breaking year for the nation. Seventeen states hit record highs, and just two avoided ranking among their top five warmest years.
"This is climate breakdown, in real time," U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said, per the Guardian. "We must exit this road to ruin and we have no time to lose. In 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by dramatically slashing emissions and supporting the transition to a renewable future. It is essential, and it is possible."
Why is a record-warm year important for our planet?
World Weather Attribution's report, When Risks Become Reality: Extreme Weather In 2024, sounds the alarm about the link between unprecedented heat last year and extreme weather events.
"Extreme weather reached dangerous new heights in 2024," it reads. "This year's record-breaking temperatures fueled unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfire, storms and floods that killed thousands of people and forced millions from their homes. This exceptional year of extreme weather shows how dangerous life has already become with 1.3 degrees Celsius of human-induced warming, and highlights the urgency of moving away from planet-heating fossil fuels as quickly as possible."
A joint report by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central revealed that in 2024, an overheated planet added 41 extra days of dangerous heat. WWA has found a warming world's "fingerprints" on many recent extreme weather events.
What's being done about record-breaking global warmth?
WWA recommends some resolutions for 2025 to help mitigate future warming. They include a more rapid move away from dirty energy, better real-time reporting of heat casualties, and increasing financing for underdeveloped countries that are many times the most vulnerable to the impacts of an overheating planet.
There is hope on the horizon for speeding up the shift toward cleaner, renewable energy sources. The price of solar power has been plummeting, dropping 43% in just a decade. Scientists are working on record-breaking technology that could cut the costs of solar power even more.
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Often 😇 There has also been some good news regarding wind power. A startup is developing bladeless rooftop turbines they believe will revolutionize wind power. Wind power reached a milestone in 2024 as wind turbines produced more energy last March and April than coal plants.
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