Examples of climate change in everyday life

The most important Earth news in 2024 was undoubtedly the most depressing: Climate change wreaked havoc around the globe, indirectly causing flooding, drought, wildfires and other extreme weather events.

This year is on track to become the warmest year since records began and the first year that global temperatures have been 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

In May, levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere — as measured from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mauna Loa Observatory — reached a record high of 426.90 parts per million.

"Not only is CO2 now at the highest level in millions of years, it is also rising faster than ever," Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps CO2 Program, said in a statement at the time. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels also reached a new record high.

All that warming has had disastrous impacts on weather around the globe.

The year started with one of the strongest El Niño events