(C)urrent (C)limate

In the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated. In total, these events cost $101bn in damages – lost homes, businesses, highways and other infrastructure – a toll higher than any other first half of a year since records on this began in 1980.

The global average concentration of the gas surged by 3.5 parts per million to 424ppm in 2024, the largest increase since modern measurements started in 1957, according to the report by the World Meteorological Organization.

(104f)

a 2021 NASA study found that the excess of incoming sunlight over outgoing radiation, known as Earth’s energy imbalance, has doubled since 2005. Satellite data reported in this study shows our planet now reflects 1.7 percent less sunlight than 20 years ago, and the decline is speeding up, amplifying global warming.

These are crimes against humanity; crimes on a planetary scale.

For the first time (EVER), the May average exceeded 430 parts per million, reported scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mauna Loa Observatory and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. "Another year, another record," said Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps CO2 Program. "It's sad."

The world is on track for 2.5C-2.9C of global heating, which would almost certainly be beyond tipping points for the collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. The melting of those ice sheets would lead to a “really dire” 12 metres of sea level rise. (12 meters = 39.7 feet)