It’s official: 2024 Is The Hottest Year On Record — And The First to Breach The 1.5ºC Threshold

What would a 1.5 Cº overshoot mean for climate impacts and adaptation?

Seven months ago, we witnessed a surreal diving competition from a five-story ice ledge: hundreds of juvenile emperor penguins, driven by gnawing hunger, gathered at the edge of a 50-foot (15-meter) Antarctic ice cliff, eyeing the freezing sea below.

“How do we get down there?” they seemed to ask each other as they piled up, inching closer to the abyss. Until one brave chick took the first clumsy, daring plunge, and one by one, the others followed, using their swimming wings to break their fall as they tumbled down.

But make no mistake — this wasn’t just another group of thrill-seeking teenagers. This was just a splashy preview of what would become a year marked by the consequences of record-breaking heat.

As 2024 unfolded, Earth’s fever spiked.