Number Theory: Cleaner fuel may have added to global temperature spike

The shift, Hansen et al argue, only underlines the need for doubling down on efforts to mitigate global warming before it reaches a point of no return

January 2025 was 1.75°C warmer than the pre-industrial average in the ERA5 data, making it one of the biggest-ever monthly deviations in temperature. This continues a trend of abrupt rise in global warming seen since 2023-24. What is the reason for this abrupt rise? A recently released paper co-authored by James E Hansen, a former NASA scientist and one of the most well-known scholars on the climate crisis, suggests that the sudden spike is a result of a shift in Earth’s energy balance rather than any fundamental shift in the larger trajectory of global warming. The shift, Hansen et al argue, only underlines the need for doubling down on efforts to mitigate global warming before it reaches a point of no return.

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