What I’m Reading:

Globally, 2024 was the warmest year on record—more than two and half degrees hotter than the preindustrial average. In the U.S., there were twenty-seven climate-related disasters that caused more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage, just one short of the record, set in 2023. Scientists had expected temperatures to moderate this year, because a new, typically cooler weather pattern, known as La Niña, took hold in December. But January, once again, broke all heat records. Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, called the January data “astonishing and, frankly, terrifying.”

— Elizabeth Kolbert / “The Second Trump Administration Takes Aim at the Climate“ / The New Yorker