A recent report finds climate change is accelerating faster than predicted. Some experts disagree 

EXPLAINERA pioneering climate scientist says global heating is accelerating. Others say we can still reach climate goals
The sun is reflected on the sand on a warm, winter day at La Jolla Shores beach as smoke from the Los Angeles fires settles on the Pacific Ocean at sunset on January 10, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
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}Last year raised many major red flags for climate change, perhaps greatest of all being the first year in which global average temperatures exceeded 1.5º C above pre-industrial levels. This is the threshold the majority of countries, including the U.S., vowed not to surpass in the 2015 Paris climate accord. 2025 isn’t looking much better, as January was already the hottest in recorded human history, shocking some scientists who had hoped the La Niña cycle would cool things down a bit. It hasn’t.These are more than just ominous statistics — this extreme heat has translated into countless examples of real-world “weird weather” including unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, floods and extreme storms across the globe. Virtually nowhere has been untouched by climate change disasters, from California and the American southeast to Spain, Greece and Africa, all of which seems to be getting worse.Meanwhile, we’re burning record amounts of fossil fuels, accelerating the crisis, all while world leaders like President Donald Trump deny and ignore climate science, even falsely claiming America has a “national energy emergency” which requires more drilling.Yet if a recent study in the journal Environment led by iconic climate scientist Dr. James Hansen is correct, things are even worse than all of the latest news would make one believe: He claims Earth is about to blow past 2º C above pre-industrial levels. Major media outlets like The Guardian and Inside Climate News are sounding alarm bells about these findings but not everyone agrees with these conclusions.Some scientists like Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, say that Hansen neglected to focus on one of the major variables contributing to climate change: water vapor.”The biggest warming is not in the Northern Hemisphere oceans but in the Southern Hemisphere oceans where aerosols certainly were not responsible for the warming.”“Water vapor is at record high levels, and of course so is the ocean heat,” Trenberth said. Water vapor doesn’t linger in the air, so it doesn’t contribute to long-term climate temperature increases in the same way as carbon dioxide, but it can temporarily raise temperatures and overall amplify the effects of greenhouse gases. “Global integrated water vapor is some 7% higher in 2024 than in 2000. Of course, that is a feedback and depends on higher temperatures (in the right places), but it also very much depends on the warmer oceans,” Trenberth explained.In particular, Trenberth took issue with the way H