Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash
Global warming is increasing at a fast pace, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. An article in Science Daily about the institute’s research says that “after removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015.” This acceleration became visible around 2013 to 2015 and appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty.
The recent pace is higher than that of any previous decade since instrumental temperature records began in 1880.
“We can now demonstrate a strong and statistically significant acceleration of global warming since around 2015,” says Grant Foster, a US statistics expert and co-author of the study, which was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“We filter out known natural influences in the observational data, so that the ‘noise’ is reduced, making the underlying long-term warming signal more clearly visible,” Foster added.
In climate data, “noise” refers to short-erm temperature changes that can temporarily hide or exaggerate the underlying trend. Science Daily notes that El Niño, for example, can push global temperatures higher for a limited period by releasing heat from the tropical Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions can have the opposite effect by sending particles into the atmosphere that reflect sunlight, while changes in the Sun’s activity can also produce smaller temperature variations.
The research was designed to detect and measure the statistical acceleration, not to determine exactly why it has occurred.
However, the Institute’s authors noted that climate models can produce periods in which warming speeds up. “In other words, an increasing rate of warming is consistent with the range of behavior represented in current climate modeling.”
Climate models help scientists evaluate long-term climate patterns and possible future changes.
Journal Reference:
G. Foster, S. Rahmstorf. Global Warming Has Accelerated Significantly. Geophysical Research Letters, 2026; 53 (5) DOI: 10.1029/2025GL118804
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Elisa Bracamonte has lived in Arizona her whole life, so she’s used to adjusting her schedule and outdoor activities around high temperatures, especially during the summer months.
But the 74-year-old retired nurse from Tucson said she feels the heat has been impacting more of her day-to-day: summer plans with family members across the region, meetups with friends, road trips and her daily morning walk routine.
“I’ve noticed at least a 10 degree difference in the weather,” Bracamonte said. “Every summer, it seems to be getting hotter and hotter.”
Like Bracamonte, Americans are increasingly feeling a personal impact from extreme heat, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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Climate change is driving record heat in Europe’s seas, scientists say (Reuters)
BRUSSELS, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Human-caused climate change was the main driver of recent record-breaking sea temperatures around Europe, scientists said on Wednesday, warning of severe consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
Europe’s seas have not escaped the extreme heat that many countries have endured this summer. Last month, the average temperature in the Mediterranean was 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest for any July on record, while an offshore buoy near Mallorca recorded 33 C in early August.
Human-caused climate change has added about 2 C of warming to the Mediterranean and around 1.4 C to Western European seas, according to an analysis by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group, which uses peer-reviewed methods to assess global warming’s role in extreme weather events.
“This has the potential to completely reshape ecosystems that coastal communities rely on for food and income, and drive damaging extreme weather on land too,” said Claire Bergin, a climate scientist at Ireland’s Maynooth University and a co-author of the study.
The analysis found that peak sea temperatures recorded this year in the eastern and western Mediterranean and along the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.
In the Celtic Sea, off Britain and Ireland, the most extreme temperatures recorded would have been expected only about once a century in a world without human-caused climate change, it found.
Hotter seas increase humidity and overnight temperatures in coastal areas and can help fuel intense storms later in the year.
Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, have raised the planet’s average temperature to around 1.4 C above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This hotter baseline means the high-pressure atmospheric systems that cause heatwaves can reach higher temperatures.
Sea temperature spikes can cause mass die-offs of species such as corals and disrupt food supplies for birds and mammals, with knock-on effects through food chains.
John Bruno, a marine ecologist at the University of North Carolina, said some species were moving north to seek cooler waters, but not all could adapt.
“We are rapidly approaching the absolute biological limits of adaptation for many species,” he said.
According to the WWA analysis, about 90% of the Bay of Biscay and 80% of the western Mediterranean have experienced marine heatwave conditions this year. Without global warming, that figure would have been closer to 40%.
Reporting by Kate Abnett. Editing by Mark Potter
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