For more than 30 years, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization has told us how terrible things are getting with global climate change. Their annual “State of the Climate” report is a compendium of climate change facts and figures collected throughout the previous 365 days. It’s an authoritative look at the state of our global climate and its increasingly precarious condition.And I, a climate reporter, almost never write a thing about it.This year’s edition, covering 2025, is out today.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe findings are stark, even frightening. But, like every year, it also feels like a bit of a rehash. “What exactly is new here?” I usually wonder before moving on to the next assignment.It is not just me who can be dismissive of this particular press rollout. Past coverage of the State of the Climate report and documents like it has shown that you, the reader, have limited interest in stories about another UN climate report containing warnings of impending doom.The fact that the past 11 years were the hottest on record? Yawn. The announcement that greenhouse gases in the air are at unprecedented levels for all of human history? Wake me when you’ve got something new to report. The oceans are warming at never-before-seen rates? Didn’t we already know that?The findings should be jarring reminders of planetary vital signs flashing red. But similar observations were made last year … and the year before that.AdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, the very fact that these reports feel too routine to cover is a testament to how far climate change has progressed, even just in the past decade. Unfortunately, we’ve built up some immunity to bad news about the climate.Though the individual data points may have been reported already, this edition contains more detailed and disturbing information about the climate than any before. If it were an audiobook, it would be filled with screaming rather than speaking, with the narrator gripped by the urgency of the information it contains.That realization led me to take the crazy (for me) step of telling you about this release. Plus, this year’s compen …
