Jeff Brady
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Governors in more than a dozen states have warned their residents about the storm and declared some form of emergency or state of preparation.
Schools and universities in some of the affected states have announced they plan to close or offer virtual classes Monday.
Countries have agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more extreme storms, rainfall and heat waves.
Samantha Burgess with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts says the Earth has nearly reached that.
2024 was the hottest year in the past 11 years of all set records.
The primary driver for the hotter climate is rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from human activity such as burning fossil fuels.
The research firm Rhodium Group estimates U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.4 percent last year.
Ben King with Rhodium says higher natural gas prices encourage power plants to burn more polluting coal.
And in buildings, Americans turned up the heat.
We've had, in 2025, generally colder winters across the country.
That's leading to more use of natural gas and fuel oil for heating in the building sectors.
King says climate pollution from transportation was flat, even though people traveled more.
That's because there are more electric vehicles and hybrids on the road.
Trump policies to boost fossil fuels and hurt renewable energy had little effect on the estimates.
Those policy changes could show up in future years.
The Trump administration wants to eliminate the endangerment finding.