It has been a while since I last posted a Climate Watch blog entry. For a while this past summer, it felt like I was posting one after the other. Of course, at the time, there were record hot streaks and temperatures being set all across the globe. Right now, however, it is October, and so it is right in the middle of the autumn season here in the Northern Hemisphere, and springtime in the Southern Hemisphere. So for now, not much in the way of record hot temperatures going on.
That said, there is a lot happening. Record floods in Mexico and Arizona, for example. But floods happen often, and they are not necessarily so unusual as to be directly or obviously linked to climate change, although the number and level of severity of them makes it feel like this is the case.
However, I just ran into this article by Laura Paddison of CNN the other day. It is about how scientists feel that we have now reached an early "tipping point" in regards to climate change has been reached. Now, we will have to watch the ramifications of our combined actions and, in one very important sense, our collective inaction.
“We are rapidly approaching multiple Earth system tipping points that could transform our world, with devastating consequences for people and nature,” said Tim Lenton, a professor at the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and an author of the report published Sunday.
The first thing to go, evidently, will be barrier reefs in warm weather regions. With the oceans warming, like the rest of the planet, the damage is being seen first and foremost to coral reefs. They used to be an explosion of color and life and vibrancy. Now, large chunks of them have become bleach white, lifeless and more a sign of what feels increasingly like a dying planet.
Here's a bit more on that:
Since 2023, the world’s reefs have been enduring the worst mass bleaching event on record as oceans reach record high temperatures, with more than 80% affected. What was an underwater riot of color and life is being replaced with a bleached, seaweed-dominated landscape.
“We have now pushed (coral reefs) beyond what they can cope with,” said Mike Barrett, chief scientific advisor at the World Wildlife Fund UK and co-author of the report. Unless global warming is reversed “extensive reefs as we know them will be lost,” the authors wrote.
Yikes.
But you know, I feel like we have already seen numerous signs of more extreme weather (or climate) conditions all around the world. It is exactly as scientists predicted for decades now, even though people largely ignored it then, and still often largely seem to ignore the warnings now. We see more massive storms - often described as "once a century" or "once in a generation" or perhaps something you see only once in a lifetime. Only they seem to be happening with increased frequency and intensity these days. More severe storms, and more severe floods in some regions, more severe droughts in other regions. And of course, record hot temperatures coming up, and then being surpassed within a couple of years or so, and then those records being topped within a couple of years after that. All of that, I feel, have been early warning signs of climate change.
But hardly anyone seems to be paying attention.
Now, we'll start to see more serious, and likely more undeniable, consequences of our destructive actions and tendencies.
The planet has entered a ‘new reality’ as it hits its first climate tipping point, landmark report finds by Laura Paddison, October 14, 2025:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/13/climate/tipping-points-coral-reef-ice-amoc?Date=20251013&Profile=CNN,CNN+International,cnn&utm_content=1760361319&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook,threads&fbclid=IwY2xjawNars9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHoMlE99gUJxwum-SG05xy-6GVGRHQ-e8kwz-8nJcxXU_oP5TAElwY7kuiEyJ_aem_AkBMNnndNgQ9V5P0JdYfDQ
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