As expected, 2024 was the hottest year on record. The Guardian reports that the average temperature was 1.6°C above preindustrial levels, which broke the record set in 2023. In fact, the ten past years were the ten hottest on record, and July 22, 2024 was the hottest day in modern human history. Global greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise, so it’s only going to get hotter in the future (U.S. emissions in 2024 were essentially unchanged from 2023). Climate scientist Andrew Dessler released a statement he has issued before: “Every year for the rest of your life will be one of the hottest [on] record. This, in turn, means that 2024 will end up being among the coldest years of this century. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

During December, while steady precipitation was keeping northern California wet and building the Sierra snowpack, southern California remained dry (the Los Angeles area has received less rainfall since the start of the rainy season in October than almost any other year since record-keeping began in 1877.). When a strong Santa Ana wind was forecasted, warnings about a “LIFE-THREATENING AND DESTRUCTIVE WINDSTORM” and a “Particularly Dangerous Situation” were issued by the National Weather Service. The Los Angeles Fire Department activated emergency procedures, pre-positioning assets and authorizing overtime for personnel, and 80 fire trucks were called in from other areas.

Unfortunately, the warnings turned into “a wind and wildfire monster” that has engulfed parts of Los Angeles, leading to the loss of thousands of homes and at least 25 lives. “The hurricane-force winds, low humidity and parched landscape created unusually perilous conditions: On the first day, when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, it was too windy by late afternoon to send up the aircraft whose drops of water and fire retardant might have helped slow the spread of the blazes.” The New York Times noted that, as of January 8, over 80,000 people were under evacuation orders, and 400,000 were without electricity, as several fires burned at once across the region. This led to many descriptions of “biblical” or “apocalyptic” scenes of damage. A first-hand account in the New Yorker says that “breathing was like trying to inhale a campfire.” Another in the Atlantic quotes a long-time Malibu resident: “I got the hell out of there. We’re toast. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

And while we watched this event grow into what is likely to be the greatest disaster ever to strike Los Angeles, Salon points out that this is not a freak event, just the new normal. Globally, extreme fires are expected to increase up to 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050 and 50% by 2100 (Professor Dessler offers a brief review of how climate change is increasing fire risk). In The New York Times, David Wallace-Wells notes that we’re just not prepared for fire on this scale. Five years ago, then Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, told Wallace-Wells: “there’s no number of helicopters or trucks that we can buy, no number of firefighters that we can have, no amount of brush that we can clear that will stop this.” Seven of the eight largest wildfires in California history have burned since then.

Inside Climate News reports that, as fires spread in Los Angeles, misinformation about them spread across the Internet. President-elect Trump was at the forefront, blaming the fires (and fire hydrants running dry) on Governor Newsom and the ecological restrictions placed on water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Of course, almost none of that water gets to Southern California, and fire hydrants were dry because of fighting four fires at once, but facts apparently have become old-fashioned. (Congressman Warren Davidson [R-OH] suggested on Fox News that disaster relief money be withheld from California until it changes its “water and forestry practices.”) False claims were made about budget cuts at the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), and Elon Musk insisted that “nonsensical overregulation” and “bad governance” were to blame. Salon reports that Fox News implied female management of LAFD, which does not exist (except that the Chief is a woman), means “DEI” caused the fires. The Atlantic notes that some commentators concluded U.S. investments overseas in Ukraine or Israel were at fault. The author notes: “In the aftermath of disaster, healthy communities ask themselves, What did we do wrong? Unhealthy ones ask, Who did this to us? Nations that externalize their internal issues lose the ability to address them.”

In an op-ed in The New York Times, climate scientist Peter Kalmus reminds us that “one lesson climate change teaches us again and again is that bad things can happen ahead of schedule.” Kalmus and his family moved from Altadena two years ago due to the wildfire threat. The Eaton fire burned his old house and neighborhood, and he (like many scientists, including yours truly), is screaming for political courage and action: “Nothing will change until our anger gets powerful enough. But once you accept the truth of loss, and the truth of who perpetrated and profited from that loss, the anger comes rushing in, as fierce as the Santa Ana winds.”

Progress on reducing air pollution from cars in California has relied for decades on a provision of the Federal Clean Air Act by which the EPA can issue a waiver that allows California to adopt tailpipe-emission standards that are more stringent than the federal ones. This reflects the fact that California has traditionally suffered from some of the most polluted air in the nation. The Washington Post reports that the Biden Administration has just approved a waiver enabling California to require that new vehicles produce no emissions starting in 2035. This is widely seen as a “mandate” to produce EVs, and has been decried by Republicans (including President-elect Trump), although other technologies such as fuel cells or hydrogen could qualify as well. “Environmental and public health advocates have praised California’s stronger car rules, which could cut smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles by 25 percent by 2037.” While this action is certainly opposed by Trump, it should be noted that “there’s no provision in the Clean Air Act that says you can revoke a waiver.”

While the waiver only applies to California, the Clean Air Act also allows other states to abide by California’s standard, and typically more than a dozen other states have followed California’s stricter rules, collectively accounting for about 40% of the U.S. auto market. The New York Times reports that several business groups, including auto-fuel producers, have sued to block California’s action. Federal courts have denied that the groups have standing to sue, but the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case on appeal (a foreboding development). The objections to the waiver are really about California treating carbon-dioxide emissions from cars as a pollutant that must be controlled. “If the court sides with fuel producers, state climate experts point out, the likely next step by the oil industry would be to file a substantive challenge to the law.”

Meanwhile, Utility Dive notes that “combined sales of hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, which EIA refers to as BEVs, increased from 19.1% of total new light-duty vehicle sales in the United States in the second quarter to 21.2% in the third quarter, EIA said, citing estimates from Wards Intelligence.” BEVs increased their market share from 7.4% of sales in the 2nd quarter of 2024 to 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. The New York Times reports that strong auto sales in the 4th quarter led to a good year of business for most automakers, and EV sales were a big help. GM doubled its EV sales, while Ford’s climbed 16%. Another Times article describes how the EV market will respond if Trump tries to undercut it, noting that while it will have some effect there is little doubt the transformation to electric cars is underway.

The New York Times examines the impact of marine heat waves, which are becoming more common as the world warms. In particular, the article focuses on the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of San Francisco, recounting the effects of a marine heat wave a decade ago. A major impact was the loss of bull kelp, a keystone species, along with reduced productivity at the base of the food web. Scientists also documented a myriad of cascading harms, including the death of thousands of sea birds, altered use of the habitat by whales and disruptions to commercial fishing, ocean-going commerce and tourism. The Times also describes the impact of the heat wave in northern waters, where half a million common murres died because of a collapse in the fish populations on which these birds depend.

Thanks to the largest solar farm in Illinois, the municipal buildings of Chicago are now running on 100% renewable energy. Grist notes that this includes “98 fire stations, two international airports, and two of the largest water treatment plants on the planet.” This effort was over a decade in the making, with early commitments from Chicago leading to the construction of the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi River. The Double Black Diamond Solar project can produce enough electricity to power more than 100,000 homes. One analyst notes that “Chicago is demonstrating directly how cities can lead by example, implement ambitious goals amidst evolving state and federal policy changes, and leverage their purchasing power to support a more equitable renewable energy future.” The Union of Concerned Scientists reviews the remarkable progress of renewable electricity in 2024.

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