NOAA scientists refuse to link warming weather to climate change
In a monthly reporting call on global climate, researchers from the US government’s climate and weather agency avoided mentioning rising levels of greenhouse gases
By James Dinneen
20 February 2025
Extreme weather, including hurricanes, has increased with climate change
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) presents a briefing summarising the global climate each month – and in the first of these calls under the Trump administration, NOAA researchers avoided making any link between January’s record high global temperatures and climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s not great for science. It’s not great for truth,” says David Ho at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He says greenhouse gas emissions from humans have unequivocally played a role in raising global average temperatures.
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The monthly NOAA briefings generally include information on average temperatures both around the world and in the US, as well as updates on changes in the ocean, drought and any unusual events.
This month’s climate call included reports that global temperatures in January were 1.33°C above the 20th century average. This makes it the hottest January on record, coming on the heels of the hottest year on record. Each of the past 10 years is among the 10 hottest years on record.
The government researchers also explained these high temperatures in January came despite the cooling influence of a La Nina pattern in the Pacific Ocean, as well as unusually cool temperatures across much of the US. Other notable events mentioned included below average sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
