Science-based insights on climate risks

A record-setting March heatwave is bearing down on the western U.S., with forecasts hitting 90°F in Denver, 97°F in Los Angeles, and 106°F in Phoenix. These are summer numbers — but it’s still winter.

Tropical Cyclone Narelle made landfall in Australia not once, but twice over the weekend — coming within 5 km/h of Category 5 strength. The fuel? Coral Sea temperatures running up to 1°C above normal. Ocean warming at that level has been made an estimated 10 to 40 times more likely by climate change.

Colorado just recorded its warmest winter in history — and its worst-ever snowpack. The consequences are already unfolding. Denver has enacted drought restrictions for the first time since 2013. Lake Powell is projected to drop below the minimum level needed for hydropower generation. Farmers in parts of the state could receive a fraction of their planned irrigation water. And the conditions are primed for an elevated wildfire season.

Just last week, a new paper in Science Magazine revealed that an AMOC tipping point could arrive much sooner than previously thought. The scientific conversation is shifting fast, and the financial implications aren't priced in.

Earth Day has always been about making the invisible visible. Today, the systems that stabilize our climate — ocean currents, permafrost, forests, ice sheets — are measurable in ways they weren't 50 years ago. And the data shows several of them are approaching tipping points.