1.     2024 was the warmest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), topping pre-industrial (1850-1900) temperatures by 1.46 degrees Celsius (2.63 degrees Fahrenheit).  Concentrations of gases like carbon dioxide are 50% higher than pre-industrial levels, while methane and nitrous oxide are also up about 150% and 25% respectively.   Heat waves, heavy rainfalls, and wildfires are all signals of this change, with U.S. residents per person emitting nearly twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as people living in China.  Minnesota meteorologist Paul Douglas reports that NOAA collects and analyzes more than 6.3 billion observations per day, with 100 twice-daily weather balloon launches to survey the 12 mile-thick troposphere where "weather" takes place.  NOAA issues about 1.5 million forecasts and about 50,000 warnings every year, all of which are threatened by federal cuts to this critical service.  Let your elected leaders know that public safety relies on reliable reporting from NOAA.

2.      The Arctic's summer sea ice content is only 50% of what it was in the 1980s, with continued warming at rates 3.5 times faster than the rest of the world, according to research at NOAA, Cornell University, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.  The Arctic has massive amounts of carbon in its soils locked up in permafrost that has been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years that is now thawing and releasing emissions of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere as more intense Arctic wildfires burn up vegetation and soil organic matter.  Due to human-induced burning of coal, oil, and gas, this translates into faster sea level rise, and higher chances of extreme weather, stronger hurricanes and wildfires, stronger precipitation and drought events.  Be an advocate of those working to reduce heat-trapping emissions.

3.      Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany warn that Earth is warming at a faster rate than previously thought, with average temperatures climbing by 0.26 degrees Celsius in the decade since 2014 (up from 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade from 1970 - 2010). Even the temporary and natural El Nino weather cycles that add warming to the globe go back down very little, if at all, at the end of the cycle. Until recently, 53% of the CO2 from fossil fuel burning and land system change has been soaked up by intact nature on land and in the ocean, but forests in Canada, Russia, Germany, and elsewhere are losing their capacity to absorb carbon, while the Amazon forest, the Earth's richest biome on terrestrial land, has tipped over into emitting, not storing, carbon.  Support efforts to reduce our dependence on coal, oil, and gas, as well as making changes to our agricultural systems that produce heat-trapping emissions.  

4.      Research at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the U.K. Meteorological Office, and NOAA finds that the world's oceans, which have absorbed 90% of the heat caused by human-induced climate change, are now losing resilience and are at risk of releasing heat into the atmosphere. Since 1980, the oceans have steadily warmed, while big systems like the Greenland ice sheet, the overturning of heat in the North Atlantic, the coral reef systems, and the Amazon rainforest are being pushed from contributing to cooling and dampening to being part of the warming tipping point.  We emit today 40 billion tons of CO2 every year, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which advocates reducing emissions by at least 7% per year and a net zero world economy by 2050.   The only solution:  a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable food systems, regenerating forests, and more.  

5.     Worldwide, the food system accounts for roughly 25% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, much of which is due to the proliferation of large-scale confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs/factory farms).  The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research and advocacy organization, says that more than 25,000 feedlots in Minnesota farm country annually produce 49 million tons of manure, the waste-equivalent 17 times the state's entire population, requiring local governments and individuals to spend millions to remove harmful nitrates from drinking water as a result of excess animal waste and farm runoff.  Minnesota-based Land Stewardship Project (LSP) invites all of us to support local farmers who raise animals and farm responsibly, with care for healthy soils and clean water, and who contribute to resilient and healthy local economies.