Global Heating Accelerated Rapidly Over the Past Decade, a New Study Claims

A study published in Geophysical Research Letters claims global warming has accelerated dramatically over the past decade, with temperatures rising at 0.35 degrees Celsius per decade since 2015 compared to 0.2 degrees per decade between 1970 and 2015—a 75 percent spike. The research, which isolated climate "noise" from El Niño patterns and volcanic activity, suggests the planet could cross the critical 1.5-degree warming threshold established by the 1995 Paris Agreement before 2030. Stefan Rahmstorf, an author of the study and head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, warned that accelerating warming pushes the world into "high risk territory" for triggering irreversible climate tipping points like the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which could cause 24 feet of sea level rise. However, outside experts including Sofia Menemenlis at Princeton and Daniel Schrag at Harvard questioned the study's methodology, arguing that a decade is too short a timeframe to measure climate trends reliably and that the authors may not have adequately corrected for natural ocean cycles like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Schrag cautioned that exaggerating climate science claims undermines public credibility on the issue.