Climate crisis deepens as record heat and ice loss reshape Earth's future

A new United Nations report states: 'Humanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record.'

Last month's annual State of the Global Climate report cites the Earth's energy imbalance as a key indicator of the climate emergency.

The continued extraction of fossil fuels is causing heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane (natural gas) to build up in the atmosphere and causing global heating, leading to extreme weather, including wildfires, flooding, drought and severe hurricanes.

Greenhouse gas levels are now higher than at any time in at least the past 800,000 years and have continued to rise over the past 20 years, reaching their highest point since continuous measurements began in 1960.

About 3% of excess energy warms and melts ice, and ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland lost significant mass in 2025, while the average Arctic sea ice extent last year was the lowest or second-lowest on record.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres added that the world must 'accelerate a just transition' to renewable energy to protect 'climate security, energy security and national security.'

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump (whose country is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases) has weakened our ability to respond to the climate emergency, withdrawing from dozens of climate- and energy-related international treaties and slashing climate research and emergency spending.

Trump has pushed for more fossil fuel emissions - investing in the expensive, pollution-causing coal industry.

'The way ahead,' Guterres said, 'must be grounded in science, common sense, and the courage to take urgent climate action.'