The year 2024 is on track to be the hottest in recorded history, as humanity has officially exceeded the 1.5º C threshold established by the 2015 Paris climate accord. Despite this milestone, President-elect Donald Trump is pushing environmental scientists out of the government. According to Dr. Mark Serreze and many other climate scientists who spoke with Salon, the new reality created in 2024 by unprecedented rising temperatures is the biggest news story today, despite relative lack of coverage. It raised many unanswered questions — as well as ominous prospects for the future of our species.
“While this fact is an exclamation point on global warming, it is also telling us that we have much more to learn,” Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), told Salon. Scientists like Serreze want to learn why the planet is so much warmer than even they had predicted. Dr. Peter Kalmus, a NASA climate scientist who emphasized his opinions are his own, noted that heating is accelerating “and is now substantially more rapid (0.26° C per decade) than it was a decade ago.”
