Climate Year-in-Review
In the context of global change, 2025 was a year to remember. From unprecedented heat waves roasting many locations across the globe, to severe rainfall events causing widespread damage and loss of life, climate change showed no sign of slowing down this past year. Across the globe, the temperature anomaly—which is the difference between the observed average temperature and the long-term average—was 2.11°C. According to the NOAA, this was the 3rd warmest year since records began in 1850, with the 1st and 2nd warmest years falling in 2024 and 2023 respectively. The trends don’t lie; we are living in the byproduct of humanity’s self-inflicted destruction caused by industrialization and excess greenhouse gas emissions.
Zooming in specifically on the U.S., just a week after the turn of the new year, wildfires raged across southern California, burning over 49,000 acres, destroying over 16,000 structures, and claiming 31 lives, per the NOAA. On a similar note, widespread drought conditions across Canada resulted in the second-worst wildfire season on record, which sent plumes of smoke into the midwest and northeast regions of the US during the summer months and suffocated millions of Americans in its path. From April 2 to 7, a deadly tornado outbreak occurred, causing historic, life-threatening flash flooding across much of the Southern and Midwestern US. On June 20, a rare EF-5 tornado formed in Enderlin, ND, the first of its kind since 2013.
Additionally, despite an improbable zero U.S. landfalls, the 2025 hurricane season saw an above average 20 named storms with three Category 5 hurricanes brewing over the above average Atlantic Ocean temperatures. The NY Post reported that NYC specifically endured its driest summer in a quarter of a century with the city collecting just 8.7 inches of rain, which is 36% below average. This is coming after a record drought summer/fall in 2024, in which there were a rare sequence of over 270 brush fires ignited across the city, including in popular parks such as Prospect Park and Inwood Hill Park. Additionally, to close 2025, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia each had their own catastrophic flooding events, with Indonesia’s death toll surpassing 900-—an unthinkable number. The effects of climate change are undoubtedly taking place right in front of our eyes, however the question that remains is what our leaders, both local and national, are actively doing to combat it.
For the U.S., 2025 unfortunately wasn’t a year of great progress. According to an article in MIT Technology Review, as the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement, they scrapped billions of dollars in funding for climate tech projects and cut funds for climate research. However, while the U.S. certainly is a primary contributor to global CO2 emissions across the globe, there are some bright spots to be optimistic about. China, another CO2 powerhouse, added 240 gigawatts of solar power capacity and 61 gigawatts of wind power, staying on track to peak CO2 emissions by 2030. In addition, tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta are moving towards using Geothermal and Nuclear energy to power AI instead of from fossil fuels. A major positive trend is that the world is on track for about 2.6°C of warming over preindustrial conditions by 2100, instead of the previous 3.6°C predicted a decade ago before the Paris Agreement. With catastrophic climate-related events worsening as each day, month, and year passes by, every measure taken—from global initiatives during the UN Climate Change conference to simply turning off a light when you leave a room—contributes to a slow and steady progression to a more sustainable future.