Have we forgotten about global warming when the world is getting increasingly hotter? The planet has just passed through the hottest 11-year stretch ever measured, and scientists say the pattern is no longer a temporary spike.

A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms that the last 11 years from 2015 to 2025 are the warmest on record for Planet Earth. This aligns with independent analyses from groups such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, all pointing to the same conclusion: global temperatures are rising steadily. This is not a blip or an episode we can blame on El Niño alone.

For the first time, the WMO report highlights a key metric that explains why and it’s about Earth’s energy imbalance. Scientists have measured the difference between incoming solar radiation and the heat Earth emits back into space. That imbalance is now at its highest level since observations began around 1960.

“The energy imbalance is the most fundamental measure of climate change,” says James Hansen, one of the first scientists to warn publicly about global warming.

Research published in Nature Climate Change and related journals shows that this imbalance has been accelerating, driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions. Hansen says this year will be particularly warm because of a projected Super El Niño. 

In practical terms, Earth is absorbing more heat than it can release. The excess energy doesn’t disappear it accumulates, and right now that is mostly happening in the oceans. This leads to coral bleaching, and other effects that can kill great deals of fish and important sea life.

At the same time, atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached unprecedented levels. According to data compiled by the WMO and NOAA, CO₂ concentrations in 2024 were higher than at any point in at least two million years, based on ice core and sediment records. This sharp increase is directly linked to the continued burning of fossil fuels and land-use changes.

The consequences are already visible. A growing body of research in journals such as Nature and Nature Geoscience shows that more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the oceans. This hidden warming drives marine heatwaves, coral bleaching, and changes in ocean circulation.

It also amplifies extreme weather on land. Warmer oceans feed more powerful storms, while higher atmospheric temperatures increase the intensity of rainfall and drought cycles. Wildfire seasons are lengthening, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe.

Scientists emphasize that the concept of energy imbalance helps explain why warming continues even when year-to-year temperatures fluctuate. “As long as the planet is out of energy balance, more warming is in the pipeline,” Hansen and colleagues have noted in recent studies.

This means the last decade is a new baseline and there will be cascading effects across ecosystems, water systems, agriculture and human health.

As the world fights over oil dominance and terror in the Strait of Hormuz we should see this as a distraction for big oil and big money. We should be investing in companies like Peak (creating batteries from salt) and Helion Energy, to usher in a dawn of abundance and prosperity that doesn’t need to offset from the get-go.

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In 2019, an underwater robot camera exploring the seabed in part of the Antarctica’s Southern Ocean brought up footage of something no one suspected:a huge breeding ground of yellowfin rockcod fish.

You wouldn’t think that the freezing Arctic waters can sustain much life. One startling phenomenon is the greening of Antarctica due to climate change.The icy continent’s dim light, ever-present ice and extreme cold forbid human habitation and make research challenging.

The discovery occurred when the Larsen C ice shelf in the Wedell Sea calved; that is, an iceberg broke off the body of the ice shelf. Ice shelves play a large role in the rise and fall of global sea levels and contribute significantly to global ocean circulation and climate.

The research article published in 2020 states:

“The Weddell Sea, located within the Southern Ocean, is significant for its biological richness and its contribution to global ocean circulation and climate. It plays a critical role in forming water mass interactions that drive large-scale ocean currents, regulate global gas exchanges, and influence climate patterns. These interactions make the area a hotspot for biological productivity, activity, and abundance .”

The splitting off of the iceberg revealed part of the seabed that had been unaccessible until then. The opportunity to explore was there. A research team formed: the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 onboard the SA Agulhas II.

In addition to studying conditions on the seabed, the research team hoped to locate the remains of the Endurance, a ship on an British exploration mission that sank in 1915 (the Endurance was found in 2020).  Researchers dropped a camera robot dubbed “Lassie” into the sea.

The footage showed thousands of circular or oval shapes on the sea floor, arranged in a pattern covering hundreds of kilometers. They are fish egg nests, shallow forms scooped out of the sea bed, each with a protective raised edge of sediment packed around it. Parent fish keep guard, hovering over the eggs and fluttering their fins to keep them oxygenated.

The colonies are geometrically formed so that larger fish nest on the farther edges, while weaker, smaller fish, more vulnerable to predators, lay their eggs inside the pattern, preferably close to the shelter of rocks. When the eggs hatch, leaving empty nests, some fish even return and clear out debris that currents bring, to prepare for the next generation.

At first these shapes were a mystery. No one expected to find a vastfish colony thriving in one of Earth’s most extreme environments. Marine biologist Russ Connelly, of the University of Essex, England, said, “We weren’t actually sure what the videos were showing us at the time. We thought maybe it was a Weddell seal snout that was going down and bonking down into the seabed. Or that it was pockmarks from stones dropping from the ice and making craters.”

We already knew about diverse life form thriving in Antarctica. Penguins, seals, whales, seabirds, sponges, fish and squid are some, without even considering krill, the tiny crustaceans that almost everything else eats. The huge rockfish nurseries are a link in the wildlife food chain that came to light only after the Eclipse/Weddell Sea Expedition.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has proposed designating the Weddell Sea as a protected area. This would prevent international businesses with an eye on this huge fish nursery from mining the seabed and endangering the entire wildlife chain.

Thomas Desvignes, a fish biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says, “A lot of Antarctic ecosystems are under pressure from different countries to be released for mining, fishing and basically exploitation of the environment. The new research offers one more reason why we should protect the Weddell Sea.”

Connelly adds, ““In general, we need to explore more of the oceans, because … we’re so surprised at every single time that we see life exists at these depths. We need to see what’s out there before species that we didn’t even know existed have been lost.”

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This week, Israel’s precision-fermentation milk from Remilk is finally appearing on supermarket shelves. Staff members have been posting photos in Hebrew, smiling, tasting, and clearly enjoying the moment — not because it’s science fiction, but because it tastes like the real thing.

Remilk doesn’t come from cows. It uses microorganisms programmed to produce the same milk proteins found in dairy. The result is real milk protein — without the animal.

Why does that matter? Because traditional dairy is one of the most resource-intensive foods we produce. It requires land, water, feed, antibiotics, and creates methane emissions. Precision-fermented milk needs far less land, far less water, and produces dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Why many scientists say cloned (fermented) milk is better:

• No cows → no methane emissions that cause climate change
• No antibiotics or hormones
• Much lower land and water use
• Identical proteins → same taste and texture
• Suitable for people with lactose intolerance (depending on formulation)
• Stable, scalable, and climate-resilient

It doesn’t mean traditional dairy and the taste of brie disappears tomorrow. But it offers a serious alternative in a world facing climate pressure, food security concerns, and ethical debates about industrial farming.

Israel has become a global leader in this field, alongside companies working on cultivated meat, egg proteins, and cheese alternatives. What once sounded futuristic is now simply… food. How do you say mooooo in Hebrew?

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The United States has announced it is withdrawing from 66 international organizations, many of them linked directly or indirectly to the United Nations system. The decision, announced by President Donald Trump and reinforced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reflects a renewed “America First” approach to foreign policy and multilateral engagement. The full list of cut funding is here. Given the pro-terror stance for organizations funded by the UN Green Prophet sympathizes with the US and understand that what appear as cleantech or environmental projects is money sent to support countries that are anti-environment, such as Qatar. Read our article on the Union for the Mediterranean.

“Today, President Trump announced the U.S. is leaving 66 anti-American, useless, or wasteful international organizations,” Rubio said. “These withdrawals keep a key promise President Trump made to Americans — we will stop subsidizing globalist bureaucrats who act against our interests. The Trump Administration will always put America and Americans first.” The administration added that its review of additional international organizations remains ongoing.

Although the full list has not yet been released, the move has immediate relevance for sustainability, climate policy, science, and culture, where the US has historically been one of the largest financial contributors. Several UN bodies central to environmental governance are widely expected to be affected, either through full withdrawal, funding cuts, or reduced engagement.

Among the most consequential is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees global climate negotiations including the annual COP summits. This year the COP31 event will be held in Antalya, Turkey. The US has already exited the Paris Agreement once under Trump and rejoined under President Biden; this announcement raises fresh uncertainty about America’s long-term role in global climate coordination.

The United Nations Environment Programme is another body closely tied to sustainability. UNEP coordinates international research, policy guidance, and monitoring on biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate adaptation. Critics in Washington argue that UNEP promotes regulatory frameworks that conflict with US economic and energy interests, while supporters say it provides essential scientific coordination that no single country can replicate alone.

Cultural and scientific organizations are also in focus. The UN’s UNESCO, which works on education, heritage protection, and science cooperation, has long been criticized by US conservatives for what they see as politicization and perceived institutional bias, particularly in resolutions related to Israel and the Middle East.

Sustainability advocates note that UNESCO’s work on water resources, ocean science, and heritage conservation often intersects directly with environmental protection. This is true, but the UN funds organizations that seem harmless, but which take a very clear political point of view that contradicts American policies and allies.

Other bodies potentially affected include the Food and Agriculture Organization, which addresses food security and sustainable farming, and the World Health Organization, whose work increasingly links environmental degradation, pollution, and climate change to public health outcomes.

Related: The UN and EU fund anti-west biases in Spain

The administration and its supporters argue that many UN and EU-aligned institutions have developed ideological and structural biases that reflect European policy preferences more than American priorities. In the EU and UN funded Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the organization operates like a pan-Arab support network instead of servicing actual countries in the Mediterranean. These critiques often point to heavy emphasis on precautionary regulation, climate mandates, and social frameworks that are seen as misaligned with US energy production, industrial competitiveness, and national sovereignty.

On the other hand, critics warn that disengagement from UN sustainability institutions risks reducing US influence over global standards that will shape markets, trade, and technology regardless of American participation.

For sustainability advocates, the moment highlights a deeper tension: whether environmental governance is best pursued through global institutions or through national and regional strategies. I personally believe that more power should be put into the hands of local organizations. The bigger and more bloated EU and UN organizations become (with non-elected leaders), the more political biases and racism creep into global policies and perception. The world needs a reset and to restart well intentioned cooperation projects from start. Because right now the UN and EU projects look like software built on code from the 80s, rickety, patched, slow to adapt, and prone to crashing under the weight of outdated assumptions.

Karin Kloosterman – Green Prophet

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The announcement of Murat Kurum as President-Designate of COP31 marks a pivotal moment for global climate diplomacy and for Turkey’s evolving role on the international climate stage.

With COP31 expected to be held in Antalya, climate negotiations move into the Mediterranean basin—one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. Turkey is already confronting the front-line impacts of climate change: prolonged droughts stressing water systems, intensifying wildfires, severe flooding from extreme rainfall, coastal erosion, and growing pressure on food, energy, and urban infrastructure. Hosting COP31 places these lived realities at the center of global decision-making.

Related: Turkey is building new nuclear reactors as Germany shuts down its last one

Turkey occupies a unique geopolitical and economic position. As a G20 economy and a bridge between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, it sits at the intersection of climate vulnerability and climate opportunity. It is both an emerging economy still expanding its energy and industrial base, and a country increasingly aware that resilience, adaptation, and sustainability are no longer optional—they are economic and social imperatives. It has also been a rising threat to global stability as it’s given refuge to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas militants. Every hotel and many restaurants in Turkey require you to go through weapons detections devices.

In recent years, Turkey has made tangible contributions to climate action. The country has rapidly scaled renewable energy capacity, particularly in solar, wind, and geothermal power, while reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels. It has launched nationwide zero-waste initiatives, invested in climate-resilient urban transformation, and prioritized disaster preparedness following increasingly frequent climate-linked extreme events.

Under Murat Kurum’s leadership, urban resilience, energy-efficient buildings, and sustainable land use have become core elements of environmental policy. But they still killed 4 million dogs this past year. Like it’s always been, Turkey is between the old and the new, the east and the west. 

Related: Explore Balat, once a Jewish neighborhood in Istanbul

COP31 in Antalya offers an opportunity to re-center global climate talks on implementation. The road from COP30 to COP31 will be defined by delivery—turning national commitments into real emissions reductions, adaptation projects, and financing mechanisms that reach vulnerable communities. Turkey is well positioned to help bridge long-standing divides between developed and developing countries, between ambition and affordability, and between mitigation and adaptation.

As COP31 President-Designate, Murat Kurum’s role will be to help shift the global climate agenda from negotiation fatigue to measurable progress. For Turkey, hosting COP31 is a chance to demonstrate leadership grounded in pragmatism, regional solidarity, and real-world solutions—showing that climate action can strengthen economies, protect communities, and accelerate a fairer, more resilient development path.The world’s journalists will be there and hopefully with a watchful eye.

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More than a billion years ago, in a shallow basin in what is now northern Ontario, a subtropical lake—similar to today’s Death Valley—slowly evaporated under the sun’s gentle heat. As the water disappeared it left behind crystals of halite, or rock salt. The world back then was nothing like the one we know today. Bacteria dominated life on Earth. Red algae had only just appeared. Complex plants and animals would not evolve for another 800 million years.

As the lake water concentrated into brine, tiny pockets of liquid and air became trapped inside the growing salt crystals. These microscopic bubbles were sealed off as the crystals were buried under layers of sediment, preserving samples of ancient air and water—unchanged for roughly 1.4 billion years. Until now.

Scientists have been able to analyze the gases and fluids locked inside these ancient salt crystals, effectively pushing our direct record of Earth’s atmosphere back by more than a billion years. By carefully separating air bubbles from the surrounding brine—no easy task—they were able to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide levels from a deep chapter of Earth’s past.

Opening these samples is like cracking open air that existed long before dinosaurs, before forests, before animals of any kind. As lead researcher Justin Park put it: “It’s an incredible feeling to crack open a sample of air that’s a billion years older than the dinosaurs.”

The results are striking. Oxygen levels during this period were about 3.7% of today’s atmosphere—surprisingly high, and theoretically enough to support complex animal life, even though such life would not appear until much later.

Related: Living water holds ancient memories in Ontario

Carbon dioxide levels, meanwhile, were about ten times higher than today. This would have helped warm the planet when the sun was much dimmer than it is now, creating a climate not unlike the modern one.

This raises a natural question: if there was enough oxygen to support complex life, why did it take so long for animals to evolve?

The answer may lie in timing. The sample represents only a brief snapshot of a vast stretch of Earth’s history—a period often nicknamed the “boring billion” because of its relative stability and slow evolutionary change. It’s possible the oxygen levels recorded reflect a temporary rise rather than a permanent shift.

“Despite its name, having direct observational data from this period is incredibly important because it helps us better understand how complex life arose on the planet, and how our atmosphere came to be what it is today,” Park said.

Still, having direct evidence from this era is invaluable. It helps scientists understand how Earth’s atmosphere developed and how conditions gradually became suitable for complex life.

Earlier estimates of carbon dioxide from this period suggested much lower levels, which conflicted with geological evidence showing there were no major ice ages at the time. These direct measurements, combined with temperature clues preserved in the salt itself, suggest a milder, more stable climate than previously assumed—perhaps surprisingly similar to today’s.

Notably, red algae emerged around this time and remain a major source of oxygen on Earth. The relatively elevated oxygen levels may reflect their growing presence and increasing biological complexity.

Far from being boring, this moment may represent a quiet but pivotal turning point—one that helped set the stage for the living world we know now.

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Sinkholes are rapidly appearing in Turkey’s central Anatolian farming region, particularly around Konya and Karapınar. These giant gaping holes in the ground in areas of farmland, known locally as obruk, are not random geological events. They are linked to prolonged drought, climate-driven heat stress, and heavy groundwater extraction for agriculture in one of the country’s most important breadbaskets. As rainfall declines and evaporation increases, natural aquifer recharge has slowed, while demand for irrigation water has surged. There are an estimated 700 new sink holes that have popped up this winter, according to Reuters.

Related: Explore Istanbul’s coolest neighborhood Balat

In Konya, large-scale farming relies heavily on groundwater wells. Farmers often respond to drought by pumping more water and overwatering crops, especially where irrigation remains inefficient or poorly regulated. When groundwater is withdrawn faster than it can be replenished, underground cavities lose pressure and stability. Over time, the land above can suddenly collapse, creating sinkholes that damage fields, roads, and infrastructure and threaten lives. Sinks holes have appeared in Iran, and also in Israel in the area of the Dead Sea. A giant sink hole collapsed an entire road in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this year.

Climate change has intensified drought through higher temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns, while decades of groundwater overuse for agriculture have compounded the damage. As in Turkey, farmers often drill deeper wells and irrigate more aggressively during dry years, accelerating aquifer depletion and land subsidence. Scientists warn that this cycle—drought followed by over-pumping—can permanently damage water systems and agricultural viability.

Related: learn more about Tunisia’s lagoons and hanging gardens for sustainable agriculture.

Across Turkey, the Dead Sea basin, and Iran, the lesson is consistent: groundwater is being treated as an endless emergency reserve. In reality, once aquifers are drained or destabilized, the land itself begins to fail. Sinkholes are not just geological curiosities; they are warning signs that climate change, drought, and overwatering are colliding with unsustainable farming practices.

Read more on resource overuse on Green Prophet:

Green Prophet: Turkey’s deadly sinkholes threaten agriculture and people

Green Prophet: Sinkholes and shrinking shores of the Dead Sea

Green Prophet: Land subsidence in Iran is a looming disaster

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More than six hundred experts appointed to the three Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are gathering in Paris this week to commence work on the first draft of IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

Related: Egypt builds one of the world’s largest solar energy parks

This is the first time in IPCC’s history that the three Working Groups are holding a joint Lead Author Meeting.

The authors, from more than 100 countries, will focus their work on the initial drafts of the three Working Group contributions to AR7 and cross-cutting topics. Bringing together authors from all three Working Groups in a single venue aims to enable the IPCC to take an ambitious qualitative leap in assessing key interdisciplinary questions related to climate change.

The IPCC provides the world’s policymakers with comprehensive summaries that synthesise and contextualise what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks. Through its assessments, the IPCC identifies the strength of scientific agreement in different areas and indicates where further research is needed.

“In this year marking the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, France is proud to host the very first joint meeting of all IPCC authors. This is an opportunity to send a strong message of support for science, which must remain the foundation of our decisions to reduce our emissions everywhere across the world,” said Monique Barbut, Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Negotiations on Climate and Nature.

“The sheer volume and high level of interest that we received from the scientific community to participate in the IPCC is a positive indication of a global commitment to advance climate action policies that are rooted in science,” said Robert Vautard, Co-Chair of Working Group I and senior climate scientist at the National Centre for Scientific Research at Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace, Paris.

IPCC reports are subject to multiple stages of review to ensure a comprehensive, objective and transparent assessment of the current state of knowledge of the science related to climate change. An open and transparent review by experts and governments around the world is an essential part of the IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete assessment and to reflect a diverse range of views and expertise.

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The latest OECD Environmental Outlook focusses on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

The OECD, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is a global policy forum that brings together high-income democracies to address some of the world’s biggest challenges and promote liberty and prosperity. It develops policies to protect individual freedoms and improve the economic and social well-being of people worldwide. The organisation studies issues such as health, education, trade and taxation — and over the last two decades, climate change has become one of its most urgent areas of focus.

The OECD has recently published a major climate change report (link at the end of the article) that companies and governments must understand. It outlines essential policy tools and highlights the need to manage potential trade-offs — for example, ensuring that rapid renewable-energy deployment does not unintentionally damage natural habitats or create new waste-management challenges when technologies reach end-of-life.

According to the latest analysis, climate change is projected to overtake land-use change as the leading driver of biodiversity loss by 2050, intensifying pressures on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In turn, biodiversity loss weakens ecosystem resilience to extreme weather and pollution, directly affecting air, water and soil quality. As land use shifts, we can also expect more flooding and wider challenges in wildlife management — as seen in recent bear attacks in Canada and Japan.

The new OECD Outlook emphasizes that policies addressing each environmental challenge are deeply interconnected. Climate mitigation policies that curb greenhouse gas emissions can also reduce co-emitted air pollutants. At the same time, expanding solar and wind power — essential for cutting emissions — can create new pressures on biodiversity if not carefully planned.

“Understanding the linkages between environmental challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution is essential for designing effective policy responses,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. “By co-ordinating their policy measures aimed at addressing these challenges, countries can more effectively advance their environmental objectives in line with their unique circumstances.”

The report examines national documents across ten countries — Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Peru and Uganda — to illustrate how governments recognise these connections. While all countries acknowledge the two-way interlinkages between climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in their Biennial Transparency Reports and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, gaps remain. What needs improvement? The report suggests that students, researchers and policymakers look closely at these findings to understand how to contribute to better environmental governance.

Overall, links between climate change and biodiversity are relatively well covered in national strategies, but the relationships involving pollution — including how climate and biodiversity pressures heighten pollution risks — are often missing. Policies designed to explicitly manage trade-offs, especially around pollution, remain limited.

To address these issues, the OECD identifies several practical levers for more integrated and effective policy action:

• Align financing and investment with interconnected climate, biodiversity and pollution objectives.

• Manage trade-offs in the clean-energy transition, including land pressures, material demand and end-of-life impacts.

• Transform resource use and advance circular-economy approaches to reduce waste, pollution and demand for primary materials.

• Improve the sustainability of food systems and land use to cut emissions, strengthen biodiversity and enhance resilience to climate and water stress.

::OECD climate change report

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