Science
Earth breaks heat and CO₂ records once again: 'Our planet is trying to tell us something'
Humanity is ignoring major planetary vital signs as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar to all-time highs and Earth records its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, international climate officials warned this week.
At 60.63 degrees, the global mean temperature in May was a record 2.73 degrees hotter than the preindustrial average against which warming is measured — marking an astonishing yearlong streak of heat that shows little sign of slowing down, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said during a speech in New York on Wednesday. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”
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According to the Copernicus service, May was also the 11th consecutive month of warming beyond 2.7 degrees, the Fahrenheit equivalent of the internationally agreed-upon limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius intended to reduce the worst effects of climate change.
Not only was it a warm month, but the global average temperature for the last 12 months — June 2023 through May — was the highest on record, at 2.93 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1850-1900 preindustrial average.
A pedestrian holds an umbrella to protect against the sun in Bangkok, Thailand, in May — Earth’s 12th consecutive hottest month on record.
(Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press)
Guterres said the world is warming so quickly and spewing such considerable CO₂ emissions that the 1.5-degree Celsius goal is “hanging by a thread.”
“The truth is, global emissions need to fall 9% every year until 2030 to keep the 1.5-degree limit alive, but they are heading in the wrong direction,” he told a crowd at the American Museum of Natural History. “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet, and we need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”
Indeed, it’s not just global temperatures that are soaring. Carbon dioxide levels — one of the main drivers of planetary warming — are also climbing to new highs.
Recent readings were 427 parts per million — the highest ever recorded in the month of May, according to Ralph Keeling, director of the CO₂ program at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Carbon dioxide does not directly provide heat, but the greenhouse gas — which comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels — increases the atmosphere’s ability to trap heat that otherwise would be released to space.
CO₂ readings have been primarily measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958, when they began under Keeling’s father, Charles David Keeling. The graph of accumulating CO₂ levels, known as the Keeling Curve, has been steadily climbing since then.
But the planet isn’t only seeing record CO₂ levels — it is also seeing record gains, Keeling said.
The monthly average CO₂ concentration recorded in March was 4.7 parts per million higher than the reading from March 2023 — breaking the previous record for year-over-year gain, a jump of 4.1 parts per million from June 2015 to June 2016.
“That number was sticking out of the envelope of what we’ve seen in the past,” Keeling said.
Fossil fuels play the biggest role in the recent record numbers, but El Niño also had a hand, he said.
The tropical Pacific climate pattern that arrived last summer is associated with hotter global temperatures, as well as droughts in the tropics and some southern continents. As a result, tropical forests, savannas and grasslands in those areas tend to wither and die and burn in wildfires, contributing to additional CO₂ emissions.
A shopper escapes the outdoor heat in October 2023 at the Asian Garden Mall in Little Saigon in Westminster.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“We have the highest fossil fuel burning, but we also had an El Niño event, and so the combination set a new all-time record,” Keeling said.
When asked how it feels to see the chart that bears his father’s name climb so steadily, Keeling said he mostly feels sad. Though there have been considerable gains in renewable energy and other efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions, “we haven’t gained enough ground yet to reverse the growth,” he said.
“I just feel sad at all the loss that has been occurring, and will continue to occur, because of this,” he said.
During his speech Wednesday, Guterres said new data show the maximum amount of CO₂ the Earth’s atmosphere can take in order to limit long-term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is about 200 billion tons. But current emissions are around 40 billion tons per year, indicating that “the entire carbon budget will be busted before 2030.”
The 1.5-degree limit is not just symbolic — every fraction of a degree could mean the difference between extinction and survival for some small island states and coastal communities, or the difference between minimizing climate chaos and crossing dangerous tipping points, Guterres said.
Consequences of higher global temperatures include the likely collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets and associated sea level rise; the destruction of coral reef systems; the loss of livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people; the collapse of sea currents that would disrupt weather patterns in Europe and other parts of the world; and widespread permafrost melt that would release more heat-trapping methane, among other outcomes, Guterres said.
He said urgent action and global cooperation are needed, and the 2020s will be the make-or-break decade. Cities, states and national governments must all play their part — as must fossil fuel corporations and global financial institutions — with actionable transition plans in place no later than the 2025 U.N. climate conference in Brazil, he said.
“It’s a transformation of society, and it’s a transformation of policy, and it is a real redesign of the priorities that we see in today’s world,” Guterres said. “Unfortunately, climate change has been victim of a diversion of attention, of public opinions, of governments and of media because of the horrible conflicts we are witnessing. … We cannot let them distract us from what is the existential threat of our times for humankind, and that is climate change.”
The latest broken records come as the western United States braces for a significant heat wave beginning this week that could see temperatures soar into the triple digits in many areas.
Portions of California and the Pacific Northwest are expected to see high temperatures well above average for the time of year, forecasters said — as hot as 110 degrees in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, and more than 100 degrees near the northernmost part of the state.
The heat wave is expected to set the stage for a long, hot summer across the vast majority of the country, according to the latest seasonal temperature outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which shows strong odds for warmer-than-normal conditions in almost every state.
Copernicus’ director, Carl Buontempo, said the ongoing global heat streak is “shocking but not surprising.”
“While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend,” he said in a statement.
“We are living in unprecedented times, but we also have unprecedented skill in monitoring the climate, and this can help inform our action,” Buontempo said. “This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold but if we manage to stabilize the concentrations of [greenhouse gases] in the atmosphere in the very near future we might be able to return to these ‘cold’ temperatures by the end of the century.”
With five months of data already in the books, there is now a roughly 75% chance that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the planet’s hottest year on record, Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist with Berkeley Earth, said in a post on the social media site X.
As the records keep tumbling, Hausfather said, it is also looking likely that June will be the hottest June on record as well.
President Trump signed legislation Thursday seeking to rescind California’s ambitious auto emission standards, including a landmark rule that eventually would have barred sales of new gas-only cars in California by 2035.
In a bill signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Trump slammed California’s planned zero-emission requirements for new car sales as “a disaster for our country.” During a meandering 50-minute speech, he argued that California’s regulations would raise car prices, hobble American car companies and place an incredible strain on electrical grids across the country.
“We officially rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating the California electric vehicle mandate, once and for all,” Trump said to applause from a room filled with conservative legislators and business representatives.
“This horrible scheme would effectively abolish the internal combustion engine, which most people prefer,” Trump continued.
Trump boasted the legislation would “kill the California mandates forever,” declaring it would dash progressive plans to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.
“They can’t take us to court,” he said. “They can’t do any of the things they can do with the executive orders, and it’s permanent.”
But moments after he signed the three bills into law, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta led a coalition of 10 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to challenge Trump’s laws, which had been approved by Congress in May. Bonta argued Congress unlawfully acted to upend California’s emission rules by invoking the Congressional Review Act, a law designed to allow legislators to rescind major federal rules adopted toward the end of a presidential administration. California and several congressional rules experts have said the Congressional Review Act could not be used to overturn federal waivers that enable California to enforce its auto emission standards.
“We’re doing this to ensure future generations inherit a livable planet with breathable air,” Bonta said at a news conference Thursday morning. “Meanwhile, the president’s divisive, partisan agenda is jeopardizing our lives, our economy and our environment. It’s reckless, it’s illegal, and because of it, we’ll be seeing the Trump administration in court again for the 26th time.”
By signing these three bills into law, Trump invalidated some of the most innovative regulations adopted by California environmental rule makers and undercut California’s long-standing authority to set more rigorous vehicle emission standards:
- The Advanced Clean Cars II rule would’ve required car companies to sell California dealerships an increasing percentage of new zero-emission or long-range hybrid vehicles, starting at 35% in 2026. The regulation would’ve culminated in a ban on the sale of new gas-only cars in California in 2035.
- Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which would’ve required a significant percentage of medium- and heavy-duty truck sales be zero-emission by 2035.
- The Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Omnibus rule that established cleaner engine standards and required warranties for new heavy-duty vehicles.
In his second term, Trump has repeatedly attacked California’s ambitious auto emission rules, including the Advanced Clean Cars II regulation, which he has incorrectly described as an electric vehicle mandate. The rule does not block the sale of used gas-only cars or other zero-emission vehicles, like hydrogen-powered cars.
Because of its historically bad air quality, California is the only state that has been given permission to adopt auto emission standards that are stricter than federal standards. Many other Democratic states adhere to California’s auto emission rules, which has put pressure on auto companies to comply with the state’s progressive rules. That has irked a number of Republicans, including Trump, who believe there should be a unified slate of auto standards set by the federal government.
“It’s had us tied up in knots for years,” Trump said in his remarks Thursday morning. “They’d pass these crazy rules in California, and 17 states would go by them. The automakers didn’t know what to do because they’re really building cars for two countries.”
But California needs a federal waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its pace-setting auto emission standards to be enforceable.
Michael Regan, the U.S. EPA administrator during the Biden administration, granted several California waivers, including two in December 2024.
Prior to the Senate vote to overturn California auto emission rules, both
the Senate parliamentarian and Government Accountability Office had determined these federal waivers are not rules, they are administrative orders, not subject to the Congressional Review Act.
Despite those rulings, the Senate moved ahead with the vote and advanced the bill to Trump’s desk with a simple majority vote.
• COVID rising in wastewater in parts of California
• New subvariant, ‘Nimbus,’ increasingly dominant nationally
• Concerns rise about Trump’s appointees making vaccine access more difficult
COVID-19 appears to be on the rise in some parts of California as a new, highly contagious subvariant — featuring “razor blade throat” symptoms overseas — is becoming increasingly dominant.
Nicknamed “Nimbus,” the new subvariant NB.1.8.1 has been described in news reports in China as having more obvious signs of “razor blade throat” — what patients describe as feeling like their throats are studded with razor blades.
Although “razor blade throat” may seem like a new term, the description of incredibly painful sore throats associated with COVID-19 has emerged before in the United States, like having a throat that feels like it’s covered with shards of glass. But the increased attention to this symptom comes as the Nimbus subvariant has caused surges of COVID-19 in other countries.
“Before Omicron, I think most people presented with the usual loss of taste and smell as the predominant symptom and shortness of breath,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious-disease expert. But as COVID has become less likely to require hospitalization, “people are focusing on these other aspects of symptoms,” such as an extraordinarily painful sore throat.
Part of the Omicron family, Nimbus is now one of the most dominant coronavirus subvariants nationally. For the two-week period that ended June 7, Nimbus comprised an estimated 37% of the nation’s coronavirus samples, now roughly even with the subvariant LP.8.1, probably responsible for 38% of circulating virus. LP.8.1 has been dominant over the past few months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Nimbus subvariant has also been increasing since May in California, the state Department of Public Health said in an email to the Los Angeles Times. Projections suggest the Nimbus subvariant comprises 55% of circulating virus in California, up from observations of just 2% in April, the agency said Friday.
“We are seeing some indicators of increased COVID-19 activity, including the rise of the NB.1.8.1 variant, elevated coronavirus levels in wastewater, and an uptick in the test positivity rate,” Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, wrote in an email to The Times.
“Wastewater surveillance across Southern California shows variability: Santa Barbara watersheds are reporting moderate-to-high levels, Ventura and Los Angeles counties are seeing low-to-moderate levels, Riverside is reporting low levels, while San Bernardino is experiencing high activity,” Hudson said.
While viral concentrations remain relatively low, Los Angeles County has observed an increase in coronavirus levels in sewage, the local Department of Public Health told The Times. For the week that ended May 30 — the most recent available — viral levels in wastewater rose by 13% versus a comparable period several weeks earlier.
In addition, there is a slight increase in the rate in which COVID surveillance tests are turning up positive in L.A. County. For the most recent week, 5% of COVID surveillance tests showed positive results for infection, up from 3.8% in early May. COVID-related visits to the emergency room remain low in Los Angeles County.
There were still low rates of COVID-19 illness in San Francisco, the local Department of Public Health said.
Yet coronavirus levels in wastewater in Northern California’s most populous county, Santa Clara County, are starting to increase, “just as they have over past summers,” the local Public Health Department said in an email to The Times. As of Friday, coronavirus levels in the sewershed of San José was considered “high.” Viral levels were “medium” in Palo Alto and “low” in Sunnyvale. Nimbus is the most common subvariant in the county.
Across California, coronavirus levels in wastewater are at a “medium” level; the last time viral levels were consistently “low” was in April, according to the state Department of Public Health’s website.
“Future seasonal increases in disease levels are likely,” the California Department of Public Health said in an email to The Times Friday.
The uptick in COVID comes as many medical professional organizations and some state and local health officials are objecting to the Trump administration’s recent moves on vaccine policy, which some experts fear will make it more difficult for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and other diseases.
Federal officials in May weakened the CDC’s official recommendations from recommending the COVID vaccine to everyone age 6 months and up. The CDC now offers “no guidance” on whether healthy pregnant women should get the COVID vaccine, and now asks that parents of healthy children talk with a healthcare provider before asking that their kids get inoculated.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a rebuke of the changing vaccine recommendations for pregnant women, accusing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — led by the vaccine-skeptic secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — of “propagating misinformation.” The American Pharmacists Assn. wrote that dropping the vaccine recommendation for pregnant women did “not appear to be based on the scientific evidence provided over the last few years.”
And an open letter by 30 organizations specializing in health — including the American Medical Assn. — said that “we must continue to prioritize high levels of COVID-19 vaccine coverage in pregnant patients to protect them and their infants after birth.”
Chin-Hong said he recommends pregnant women get vaccinated “one million percent.”
“The data are incredibly clear that pregnant women do have a higher rate of complications, hospitalization and premature births when they did not get vaccinated [against COVID] compared to the ones that did,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious-disease expert at Stanford University. The vaccines also help newborns, as antibodies generated by the mom-to-be cross the placenta, and can protect the newborn for a certain number of months, she said.
That’s essential protection, given that newborns can’t be vaccinated under 6 months of age, Maldonado said. If newborns are infected, they have relatively high rates of hospitalization — as high as those age 65 and over, Maldonado said.
Then, last week, Kennedy abruptly fired all members of a highly influential committee that advises the CDC on vaccine policy. In an op-ed to the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy criticized the previous members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, founded in 1964, as being “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
Maldonado, a professor in pediatric infectious diseases and epidemiology, was one of the fired vaccine advisors. She called their mass dismissal unprecedented in the history of the ACIP.
“We are absolutely in uncharted territory here,” Maldonado said. “I think it’s going to be really hard to understand what vaccines are going to go forward. … They’re also going to review the entire vaccination schedule.”
In general, routine review of vaccine schedules are a good thing, and prior reviews have concluded that the current recommended shots are safe and effective, Maldonado said. But the criteria being circulated by recently appointed federal officials “could actually wind up refusing to recommend, say, measles vaccine or HPV vaccine, because I’ve seen some of the misinformation that has been out there about some of these vaccines. …
“And if any of that is accepted as truth, we could wind up losing some of these vaccines,” Maldonado said.
“The question, then, is: ‘Would those vaccines disappear?’ … Hard to know,” she said. But it’s also possible that federal officials could begin to stop paying for certain vaccines to be administered to children of low-income families.
She rejected Kennedy’s characterization of the committee as a rubber stamp for vaccine makers. “Generally, a decision to not pursue a vaccine happens usually well before anything gets to a vote,” Maldonado said.
A joint statement by the governors of California, Oregon and Washington condemned Kennedy’s dismissal of the vaccine advisors as “deeply troubling for the health of the nation” and defended the fired vaccine advisors as having been “carefully screened for major conflicts of interest.”
“We have grave concerns about the integrity and transparency of upcoming federal vaccine recommendations and will continue to collaborate to ensure that science and sound medicine prevail to prevent any loss of life,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Thursday.
Traditionally, the advisory committee’s recommendations on who should get vaccinated were adopted by the director of the CDC.
“It was one of the most depressing weeks in American health … a dark period for everyone right now, and demoralizing,” said Chin-Hong, of UC San Francisco. “It’s very destabilizing.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics called the purge of the vaccine advisors “an escalating effort by the administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines.” Kennedy’s handpicked replacements include people known for their criticism of vaccines, the Associated Press reported.
The mass firing “likely puts vaccine access and insurance coverage at serious risk,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement. “It corrodes trust in the recommended schedule for vaccines, not only by the public, but by medical providers who rely on the ACIP for science-based, apolitical guidance.”
The departments of public health for California, Oregon and Washington said they “continue to recommend all individuals age 6 months and older should have access and the choice to receive currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines, with an emphasis on protecting higher risk individuals, such as infants and toddlers, pregnant individuals, and others with risks for serious disease.”
The L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement that, “at this time in Los Angeles County, current vaccine recommendations for persons aged 6 months and older to receive the COVID-19 vaccine remain in effect and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines is still in place.”
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