"More rapidly than we thought" is the theme here.
But let's start with IMO 2020 - the biggest climate story of the 21st century that you will not hear about because it's too complicated:
When trade routes shift, so do clouds: Researchers uncover ripple effects of new global shipping regulations
Nov 2025, phys.org
In January 2020, the International Maritime Organization mandated a major reduction in sulfur content in marine fuels to decrease air pollution. But this decreased cloud formation, the same clouds that have historically masked about one-third of the warming caused by greenhouse gases.Militia attacks in November 2023 rerouted cargo ships in the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Cape of Good Hope, and gave researchers the opportunity to discover that the new fuel regulations that cut sulfur by about 80% also lowered cloud droplet formation by about 67%. (Quantifying how clouds respond to changes in aerosols remains one of the biggest challenges in studying the climate.)Although these aerosols temporarily cool the planet, this comes at the cost of human health. Exposure to sulfur particles, potent air pollutants, is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The IMO regulation is estimated to have already prevented tens of thousands of premature deaths.
via Florida State University Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science: Michael S. Diamond et al, Conflict-induced ship traffic disruptions constrain cloud sensitivity to stricter marine pollution regulations, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2025). DOI: 10.5194/acp-25-16401-2025
Image credit: Space tornado - coronal mass ejection plasma stream - Chip Manchester for University of Michigan - 2025 [link]
Key 'fingerprint' reveals slowdown of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
Nov 2025, phys.org
- They uncovered a key "fingerprint" of AMOC slowdown: mid-depth (1,000–2,000 meters) warming in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean.
- Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model (MITgcm)
- AMOC slowdown triggers subsurface warming in the subpolar North Atlantic, which then generates baroclinic Kelvin waves traveling equatorward along the western boundary of the North Atlantic; upon reaching the equator, these waves propagate along the equatorial region, ultimately causing the distinct mid-depth warming.
via Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Oceanology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and UC San Diego: Qiuping Ren et al, Equatorial Atlantic mid-depth warming indicates Atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02793-1
Ocean's upper 1,000 meters undergoing unprecedented, deep-reaching compound change
Nov 2025, phys.org
"The ocean is experiencing strong compound change multidimensionally. The ocean condition is transforming in multiple dimensions at once, and even the deep ocean - once considered stable - is responding more rapidly than we thought."
via Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Mercator Ocean International, and the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at the École Normale Supérieure in France: Observed large-scale and deep-reaching compound ocean state changes over the past 60 years, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02484-x.
Global warming amplifies extreme day-to-day temperature swings
Dec 2025, phys.org
"Climate roller coaster" (aka weather whiplash)
The study defines such extreme temperature events as occurrences where the temperature difference between two consecutive days exceeds the 90th percentile of historical records. These extreme day-to-day temperature changes have become more frequent and intense across low- to mid-latitude regions. Soil drought leads to reduce the surface's heat capacity and amplify fluctuations in cloud cover and radiation.The health risks posed by these sudden temperature shifts outweigh other temperature-related variables. The correlation between these extreme temperature events and all-cause mortality follows a near-exponential pattern. (exponential)
via Nanjing University and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: Qi Liu et al, Global warming intensifies extreme day-to-day temperature changes in mid–low latitudes, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02486-9
*They don't mention acclimation but that's why it's so dangerous. A 100F day is hot, but an 80F day after a 50F day is equally hot, relative to the body that's trying to cool itself. People need something like one day per degree to acclimate, and weather whiplash does not allow that.
“Acclimatization” means temporary adaptation of the body to work in the heat that occurs gradually when a person is exposed to it. Acclimatization peaks in most people within four to fourteen days of regular work for at least two hours per day in the heat.
--Source: California Department of Industrial Relations, Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment, Mar 2023. https://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHSB/Indoor-Heat.html
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| Mostly meaningless unlabeled line chart |
Category '6' tropical cyclone hot spots are growing
Dec 2025, phys.org
Hurricane Patricia, which formed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico, was the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded, with wind intensity of up to 185 knots - enough to make it considered a Category 7 storm, if such a thing existed.
- Cat 4 - 114 - 137 knots
- Cat 5 - 137 (or more) knots
- Cat 6 - 160 (or more) knots, proposed
via American Geophysical Union and Department of Atmospheric Science at the National Taiwan University: A31A-06 Category ‘6’ Tropical Cyclone Hot Spots in the Warming Climate
Excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted in most of Europe, study finds
Feb 2026, The Guardian
Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections (chikungunya, dengue) are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in south-east England.“Twenty years ago, if you said we were going to have chikungunya and dengue in Europe, everybody would have said you were mad: these are tropical diseases. Now everything’s changed."
via UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Widespread 'enhanced rock weathering' could slow global warming
Feb 2026 phys.org
Enhanced Rock Weathering - crush silicate rocks, add to crop soil, and let the rock dust naturally react with carbon dioxide. The reactions bind carbon into stable mineral forms that can persist for millennia, while also enriching the soil with nutrients, boosting crop yields and increasing farmer profits.It could remove up to about a gigaton of carbon from the atmosphere annually by 2100, roughly equivalent to the yearly emissions of a major industrial economy. But to reach that mark, access and adoption by the Global South, where warmer and wetter conditions facilitate rock weathering, will be essential.
(Which is interesting to consider, because obviously the Global North will not stop burning fossils, and the Global North will not solve this problem. It's the Global South only who has the ability to fix the future.)
via Cornell: Ying Tu et al, Scaling up enhanced rock weathering for equitable climate change mitigation, Communications Sustainability (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44458-026-00034-w
An unprecedented Antarctic heat wave hit in the dead of winter - what it signals for the decades ahead
Apr 2026, phys.org
In July and August 2024, temperatures in parts of East Antarctica rose by up to 28°C above average and stayed high for more than two weeks. It followed a heat wave in March 2022, when temperatures in some Antarctic areas soared by nearly 40°C above average — one of the largest temperature anomalies ever recorded anywhere on the planet.
via University of Sheffield: Haosu Tang et al, Unprecedented 2024 East Antarctic winter heatwave driven by polar vortex weakening and amplified by anthropogenic warming, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41612-026-01392-x
‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level, study finds
May 2026, The Guardian
The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.
