A Year of Climate Warnings, and Hope
Although we continue to heat the planet with our emissions, we’re also breaking records with the changes that will help us decarbonize our economies.
Smoke from the McDougall Creek wildfire in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023.
Photographer: Bloomberg
This year was a record-breaker. Perhaps you recall some individual events and images: Smoke from Canadian wildfires turning New York into a hazy orange dystopia; Hawaiian palm trees in flames; people desperate for water and shade in Rome and Rio. That’s just a selection of the hot and dry stuff. I haven’t mentioned the storms and floods that battered parts of the world in the past 12 months.
The extreme weather is just part of the picture. We’re now living in a world that may feel almost contradictory — climate action is accelerating, but our emissions haven’t yet peaked. Meanwhile, Earth just keeps getting hotter. As we enter 2024, we’ll likely see the juxtaposition of these trends increase.