A new online petition calling for the free bus pass scheme to include everyone over the age of 60 has hit a major milestone. Last year, the Department for Transport made it clear that the Labour Government has “absolutely no plans to withdraw the concessionary bus pass scheme” for those over the age of State…
WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added a strong 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates. Job growth rose 212,000 last month from November, the Labor Department reported Friday. For all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs, a solid number…
Ann Telnaes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist whose satirical images have skewered the famous and powerful at the Washington Post for the last 16 years. Not any longer. Last week, she resigned from the paper when its owner, Jeff Bezos, refused to let her publish a cartoon of Mr Bezos and other business tycoons kneeling before a statue of president-elect Donald Trump. In doing so, Bezos, who also owns Amazon and has an estimated net worth of almost $200bn, performed the latest act in a trend of billionaire appeasement to the incoming US president that the cartoon itself set out to depict.It is standard practice for business leaders to make changes when there is a shift in the policy environment. Companies rotate their public affairs teams to bring in lobbyists who speak the language — and have the phone numbers — of the new people in power. When Donald Trump won the US presidency in 2016, the lift-hailing company Uber, which was then facing a series of regulatory and public relations challenges, quietly exited one-time Obama campaign manager David Plouffe as its head lobbyist.Companies also often make public pronouncements that align with the political mood. Again in 2016, a large number of US corporations, including Ford, announced they were onshoring manufacturing jobs back to the States, something Trump had campaigned on.This time around, however, we are seeing a level of supplication to the incoming president that feels different. A long line of US corporate executives, particularly from tech, are queuing up to bow down to the president-elect, who has been holding court at his Florida residence since November. Many have been to Mar-A-Lago to meet with Trump, and have come away with lighter pockets — Mr Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Open AI’s Sam Altman, Apple’s Tim Cook as well as Google and Microsoft are all reported to have donated $1m each to Trump’s inauguration fund, a pot of money that is expected to reach a record breaking $200m. The broader tenor of Trump’s new administration is likely encouraging business leaders to swallow any remaining pride and embrace appeasement. Picture: AP /Evan VucciMarc Benioff, chief executive of tech company Salesforce, ensured Time magazine, which he also owns, honored Trump by awarding him “person of the year.” It is this week’s moves by Meta’s Zuckerberg that may prove to be the most consequential act of corporate knee-bending to date. On Tuesday, Zuckerberg announced the gutting of Meta’s fact-checking infrastructure, and a weakening of its policies and systems to prevent abuse and harassment. This decision will have sweeping consequences for the integrity of information and the safety of users on the company’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which are estimated to have more than three billion active daily users around the world. It follows key personnel changes at the company, with British centrist Nick Clegg leaving and former George Bush staffer Joel Kaplan stepping up as the new chief lobbyist for the firm.There are many reasons why we might be seeing this trend. Some of it is no doubt simple business interests. There are key decisions in terms of tax imminent that could impact bottom lines — Goldman Sachs estimated Trump’s tax proposals would benefit corporate America to the tune of some $250bn. Many tech firms seek government contracts, with the New York Times reporting two of Elon Musk’s companies account for at least $15.4bn in government contracts over the past decade.Trump’s vendetta policies The broader tenor of Trump’s new administration is likely encouraging business leaders to swallow any remaining pride and embrace appeasement. Trump has promised a particular brand of vendetta politics, to use his control of the US justice system to go against those who he sees as going against him. We saw this most explicitly when last summer he threatened Mark Zuckerberg with life in prison if he felt Meta’s platforms were unfair to him in the 2024 elections.Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, is reported to have donated $1m to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Picture: Michael M Santiago/Getty ImagesThere are also particular dynamics when it comes to Trump and tech that might be raising the stakes. Zuckerberg’s remarks indicate he sees Trump as an ally in pushing back on EU tech regulation, which has already loaded large costs on the company in terms of compliance and fines, like the almost €800m fine the European Commission levied against Facebook under anti-monopoly rules in November.Trump promises to be a friend to parts of the tech industry, including cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. The latter industry is at a crucial and highly cutthroat stage of its development, with pretty much every tech firm — Meta, Google, Microsoft, Open AI, Apple, Salesforce, and Elon Musk’s xAI — vying for dominance. The battle for AI supremacy is as much about the policy environment as it is about the technical competitiveness of large language models. What emerges in terms of industry regulation, as well as trade relations and access to all important computing power, are likely to be deciding factors in who gains the spoils from an anticipated AI dominated future. And closeness to the White House might be the deciding factor in who ends up on top.This is where Trump’s alignment with Elon Musk is spooking rival tech executives. The owner of Tesla, X, SpaceX and xAI not only donated a reported $250m to the Trump campaign, but he has moved into Mar-a-Lago, renting a cottage on the grounds. Ann Telnaes resigned from the Washington Post when its owner, Jeff Bezos, refused to let her publish a cartoon of Mr Bezos and other business tycoons kneeling before a statue of president-elect Donald TrumpThe rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg is intense — they publicly challenged each other to a cage fighting match in 2023. That physical fight never happened, and these puerile displays of macho egoism wouldn’t matter if these men didn’t hold enormous power — power they now appear to be yielding to an increasingly authoritarian sounding Trump. A decade and a half of market concentration and the growth of the algorithmic driven feed has made social media extraordinarily influential in global discourse. Changes made by Meta to, for example, permit abuse of minorities, have worldwide implications, especially in fragile contexts where online incitement has and continues to cause real world violence and harm, places like Myanmar, Ethiopia, Brazil.Financial power of ‘broligarchs’ The financial power that has concentrated in the tech industry has also created unfathomable wealth among this small group of men, who increasingly resemble oligarchs, or as some have started calling them, the “broligarchs”. As we have seen at the Washington Post and Time magazine, this includes owning publications, and commitments to Chinese walls between business and media interests are crumbling.The power is also cultural. In announcing his dismantling of Meta’s fact-checking infrastructure this week, Mark Zuckerberg went to great lengths to echo Trumpian talking points about the unfair bias of those who seek to find and represent the truth. He calls attempts to counter hateful rhetoric “censorship”. In embracing this language, he is empowering authoritarians around the world who have long made dangerous claims that apolitical accountability for misdeeds is actually a form of corruption.It is in fighting back against those authoritarians that we see real courage, those standing up, speaking the truth and refusing to be cowed. Genuine bravery is not a cage match, it is what people like the Washington Post’s Ann Telnaes did last week — not self-censoring, but instead simply depicting the truth, and then putting their livelihood and comfort on the line to stand up for it.In this, Telnaes demonstrates the first rule of Timothy Snyder’s advice for resisting tyranny, which many more among the US business elite could stand to learn from: “Don’t obey in advance”.
Liz Carolan works on democracy and technology issues and writes at TheBriefing.ie
Thieves steal trailer used for pop-up nachos business The owner of a pop-up nachos business is upset after thieves stole his SUV and trailer with equipment inside. The SUV later turned up. San Jose – The owner of a pop-up nachos business is devastated after thieves stole his SUV and trailer near San Jose. The…
The Lagos state commissioner for tourism, Toke Benson-Awoyinka has denied allegations of assault on anyone while on her recent tour of J.Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History .
A statement from the Director of Public Affairs at theMinistry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Seriki Omowunmi, during the inspection, said it was discovered that the Centre Director , Qudus Onikeku, was illegally operating a canteen within the premises without the knowledge and approval of the Ministry.
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This prompted Mrs Benson-Awoyinka to question the presence of the establishment and initiated an eviction that the Centre Director violently resisted and had his team attack officials of the Ministry.
The commissioner noted that a senior female member of her team was physically assaulted by the non state actors which then escalated as seen in the viral video depicting a totally false narrative.
Mr. Benson-Awoyinka noted that the video was posted ostensibly to blackmail her.
She said the Ministry remains committed to upholding transparency, accountability, and the efficient management of all its facilities while also discharging her duties in the best interest of Lagos State and its citizens.
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AI Server Market CAGR to be at 34.46% By 2034 | US Companies Leading AI Server Technology for Global Applications – Technology Today – EIN Presswire
The Founding Father in Richard Munson’s “Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist” isn’t simply a skilled diplomat, leader, and writer. Here, the 18th-century figurehead is a veritable poster child for irrepressible curiosity and joyful problem-solving. Whether observing the interaction of oil and water, inventing a musical instrument called the armonica, or conducting electricity experiments with that famous kite, Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Munson contends, “found a respite in science.” Mr. Munson chatted with the Monitor via video call; the conversation has been edited for length and clarity.The word “ingenious” had a rich meaning in Franklin’s day. How so?Generally today, we think of it as equivalent to intellect. But back then, it included things like curiosity, industriousness, and even cheerfulness. I took that as the title because it seemed as though it was Franklin’s favorite word. In his memoir, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” I think he used it 17, maybe 20 times to describe the mental and manual talents of his ancestors – candlemakers, blacksmiths, and others. He admired them and took some of their characteristics, but was consistently exhibiting his own curiosity, and always in search of other ingenious people. So it seemed as though it was rich and on target for who he was.How did curiosity fuel Franklin’s development as a scientist?Every encounter sparked his curiosity. One example was when he was on a horseback ride in Maryland with a bunch of other gentlemen and they spotted a whirlwind off in the distance. And he had this great little line: He said the rest of the party stayed up on the ridge looking at the development of this swirling debris, but “my curiosity being stronger,” he took off and went after it.He was not only being curious; he was testing the common thesis of the day, which was, you throw something through a developing whirlwind, and it’ll dissipate. So he gets close to it with his horse, poor horse, and whips [the whirlwind] with his whip numerous times and nothing happens. Here’s his chance to test the common theory. And then he writes an actual academic paper that gets picked up by the Royal Society of England and distributed widely. He was just willing to follow what he thought were interesting things and challenge conventional wisdom in the process. Franklin didn’t just experiment; he was an active – almost ebullient – inventor. Which of his creations struck you as particularly impressive?This isn’t answering your question directly, but one thing that surprised me about his creative process was how much joy he had in discovery. My image of him is this guy with a sly smile, a sort of creative, whimsical character [with] a wry sense of humor. But the amount of enthusiasm and, for lack of a better word, joy that he and his colleagues had when they were developing experiments … I just found that really refreshing. As busy as Franklin was with his political and diplomatic roles, his scientific mind never stopped whirring. Was his sense of curiosity an escape – or a balm?He was always sort of curious as to where things would lead. It even established his politics. He had this belief that Americans, the colonists, would be appreciated by the European elite only if they showed some technological or scientific prowess. So he created the American Philosophical Society, which still exists today. It was sort of the first effort to have representatives from throughout the 13 Colonies, who were fiercely independent of each other – they really didn’t like each other – and here was a united association of scientists, sort of the foundation, if you will, of the United States. He viewed his science as a way to advance his politics, which was bringing the Colonies together and advancing their standing … having the Colonies be better respected and not overly taxed and not restricted in their land acquisitions by the crown. He linked those two. That’s why I say, “Science was his through line” – that’s how he approached all aspects of his life.Did Franklin treat the U.S. and the Constitution as an experiment? He appreciated that the Constitution was a great document and the best that they could come up with, but he knew that it wasn’t perfect and that it had to change. It didn’t say anything about enslaved people, for instance. Again, it goes back to his mindset: Everything was an experiment, including politics, including the Constitution. This links to a point about his continued relevance. Unlike some people who claim that they are originalists, here is one of the originals who’s saying, “No, the document was going to evolve as observations and knowledge and other things evolve.”If Franklin were alive today, he wouldn’t be surprised that many of his then-revolutionary [scientific] findings were thrown out the door, because we have more sophisticated testing equipment now. But he’d appreciate that science evolves.
Franklin goes in and out of fashion as a historical figure. What can he offer us today?Many, I think, are troubled by what seems to be a growing distrust of science and a dismissal of facts. Here we have one of our founders, probably our most popular founder, who’s suggesting there’s something to be said for observation and experimentation, for observable facts and truths.
Building a successful business can take a lot of time and require a lot of skills. It isn’t something that is or should be approached as an overnight success endeavor.
In today’s digital era, the strategic adoption of tech support, tools, and knowledge is beneficial and crucial for businesses to enhance their operations and efficiency.
Introducing technology skills within your business can be a game-changer, empowering you and your employees to excel in your roles. These skills will enhance your performance and boost your confidence, leading to improved results and standards across the board.
But how can you gain these skills, and what will it take for you to benefit from these tech skills? You can employ people already skilled in these areas and help them develop their skills and training using their expertise to benefit from enhanced tech skills and support.
You can work with third-party providers who already employ experts in their respective fields and can assist you as per the services provided by the company. Or you can go back to school and learn these skills for yourself. While this last part isn’t optimal, it will pay off by having at least a basic understanding of the tech required with your organization to help you understand it and use it correctly for maximum benefits.
This article is going to look at some of the more in-demand tech skills businesses can benefit from.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, a remote data storage solution, offers the practical advantage of accessing data from anywhere, making it a highly efficient and cost-effective business tool. It eliminates the need for physical storage and allows for seamless data access, enhancing business operations.
Knowing how to implement and manage your locus storage services, be it Google Cloud Services, Amazon Web Service, or Microsoft Azure, understanding these systems, working with them, developing them, and putting them into practice can help you improve your operations and deliver the best results.
Now, not everyone is adept at digital tasks or has the skills and know-how to do this. So, for improved tech skills in cloud computing or anything else, having employees on hand to assist you is vital. You can also use third-party services that are experts in cloud computing to assist you in setting up everything you need and ensuring you’re getting the most from it by using it correctly.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s more commonly known, has been used within businesses for many years now. The benefits include the ability to handle vast amounts of data and analytics via automation. You simply set your AI tools up and leave them to do their thing with little or no human input.
AI can be seamlessly integrated into multiple areas of the business. Whether it’s using chatbots for customer services, AI for data collection, or increasing personalization within an ecommerce business, the ease of setting up and the potential benefits make AI a valuable addition to any business.
Cyber Security
Cyber security skills are in great demand right now, and those with the skills to put efficient defenses in place and maintain and mitigate threats are sought after, as is technology that can provide support and protection for a range of businesses. Within your organization, you’re likely to be handling vast amounts of personal data, be it medical records for healthcare, customer details for retail and ecommerce, supplier details, payment details, and much more. All identifiable data offered to you and the customer needs to be protected to avoid it ending up in the wrong hands.
With the alarming rate of over 2,000 cyber attacks daily, the need for cyber security skills has never been more pressing. Whether through SaaS options or in-house specialists, businesses must invest in these skills to safeguard their data and operations. Being aware of these threats and prepared to tackle them can give you a sense of readiness, control, and security.
Programming and Coding
As mentioned, it’s a highly digital world, and businesses embracing technology need to ensure they or their team are adept at many aspects of using digital products and living in a digital world. At the very heart of technology is coding and programming. Without coding and programming, most of the applications of digital tools you know of or use won’t be able to operate. And if you want to upskill your business and have the tools to keep things running smoothly, then you need someone, if it’s not you, with some knowledge and experience in this department.
The exact skills needed will all depend on what platforms make up your tech stacks and what you do. JavaScript and SQL are the main language skills you’ll need to know or work with; however, python is in use and in demand in many applications, including AI, as discussed above. Skills like programming a react pdf viewer can be valuable for your business and your website. Knowing how to make changes and build programs specifically for what you do can benefit the organization, as can ongoing training and skills support to help experienced and new coders get the knowledge and expertise they need to help support operations and tackle issues on a daily basis.
Project Management Skills
Project management skills are vital in all businesses, especially when adopting new technology. They help you avoid those moments when everyone dives in head first and just gets started without a plan, making you feel more organized, in control, and systematic.
Let’s say you’re building an app for your company, and your programmers are ready to get started. Instead of jumping feet first into the project, they need to develop a meticulous plan that follows development, includes testing, follows a pattern, and has some methodology to it so they can continue to move forward.
Training in project management tools that can improve work processes and flows is vital. This type of technology and training in how to use it efficiently can elevate your operations and ensure that no one is left unturned and that you’re systematically addressing every point.
UX Skills
UX or user experience skills are not just in demand, they are crucial. They allow you to significantly enhance how customers engage with your website, making things massively easier for them and thereby improving the user experience. And we all know the better the user experience, the more likely you are to complete the sale and retain customers.
UX skills include research, prototyping, product testing, etc., and require in-depth skills in multiple areas to provide all users with a beneficial and seamless experience. All businesses know that the better the user experience, the more likely you’ll be to complete the sale and retain customers.
Skills like design theory, wireframing, and information architecture are all valuable for UX, and having these skills or access to them can help you improve your UX immediately.
Data Analysis
Data is incredibly valuable in today’s society. The ability to precisely analyze data using validated methods and get actionable insights is not just important, it’s crucial. It’s what allows your company or clients to make well-informed decisions. A better understanding of user behavior, the ability to spot emerging trends, and an improvement in the goods and services you provide to clients are all made possible by having the proper data science and analytics expertise in your company.
Specific skills for these areas include computer programming, machine learning, and data cleaning, as well as job titles such as data analyst, big data architect, data scientist, and database administrator. These are some of the job roles you’ll be looking for or looking to create to accommodate your company.
Earlier in the article, we discussed how AI can help with data collection and analysis; however, you still need to interpret these results and collect the right data for more usable information. This is where having employees or learning these skills can be valuable, as you can use your knowledge to input more accurate information to deliver the results needed via AI assistance, spot trends, and manually uncover vital details.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing efforts are instrumental in reaching customers and protecting them online. If you have a type of digital presence, and in this day and age, you should have, then you need to understand, at the very least, the basics of digital marketing and how they apply to your company.
This means having people with the skills to create written and visual content, email strategists, social media experts, and more to support your marketing efforts. Again, you can outsource these, but having people in-house to take control of your digital marketing can help you get the campaign up and running and ensure you’re approaching this correctly to reach your intended audience.
Indeed, many skills are required within any business’s scope to ensure it runs as it needs to be, delivers the required results, and is protected. These tech skills and knowledge areas are some of the most important ones as we move into a digital age, enabling your businesses to grow and function..
Jan 10, 2025Tech Digest Correspondent
The number of tourist beds being used to house refugees from Ukraine as well as international protection applicants has fallen by 15 per cent in the past six months, according to official figures.New research carried out by Fáilte Ireland shows a total of 65,457 beds were occupied in November 2024 under contracts with the Government for housing refugees and asylum seekers – a decrease of almost 12,000 since May 2024.Advertisement
However, Fáilte Ireland estimates that the economic impact of the displaced bed stock in the tourism sector is still at least €400 million and could be as high as €670 million per annum.
The figures relate to the loss of potential tourism spending outside of the accommodation sector.
Fáilte Ireland claimed the unavailability of some tourism accommodation was limiting the industry’s ability to meet demand from domestic and overseas tourists, while also leading to higher prices due to a “supply-demand imbalance.”
“Inbound tour operators say it is very difficult to get suitable ‘bed blocks’ at internationally competitive rates, especially in mid-market hotels,” it added.Advertisement
The national tourism development authority expressed concern that the problem was also resulting in lower turnover for non-accommodation tourism businesses.
The latest figures show that the number of beds under contract in Fáilte Ireland-registered properties had fallen by 30 per cent over the past six months.
The change has resulted in around 7,500 beds potentially becoming available again to provide tourist accommodation over the past half year.
Fáilte Ireland said the total stock of registered tourist beds under contract was now just seven per cent compared to 12 per cent a year ago and 10 per cent last May based on data provided by the Department of Children and Integration.Advertisement
However, it acknowledged that the figure might understate the real impact of contracted beds on the availability of tourist accommodation.
“For every Fáilte Ireland-registered bed und contract there is up to one more bed in unregistered tourism relevant sites,” it added.
Fáilte Ireland said the issue highlighted again the importance of having a fully inclusive register of tourist accommodation.
The proposed Short-Term Tourist Letting Bill is due to require properties for short-term tourist lettings that are advertised on platforms like Airbnb to be registered with Fáilte Ireland.Advertisement
Such platforms will also be obliged to only advertise properties which have a valid registration number from Fáilte Ireland.
The latest figures show a total of 17,632 beds with Fáilte Ireland-registered accommodation providers remain under contract to house beneficiaries of temporary protection and international protection.
Another 47,285 beds in properties not registered with Fáilte Ireland were under contract in November 2024 – a decrease of eight per cent or approximately 4,400 beds over a six-month period.
Fáilte Ireland said it was likely that up to 24,000 of these beds were likely to have been trading in the tourism sector.Advertisement
The ongoing reduction in the number of tourist beds under contract is expected to be welcomed by tourism businesses which had expressed concern about the Government being over-reliant on the tourism sector for housing refugees and international protection applicants.
The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation warned in 2023 that a shortage of tourism beds due to Government contracts represented “a major handbrake on recovery” for the sector.
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The latest figures also show that there continues to be a disproportionately high share of tourist beds in some counties under contract.
They reveal that 18 per cent of beds in tourism accommodation registered with Fáilte Ireland in Clare are out of use for tourism, although the figure is down from 25 per cent last May.
Other counties with above-average levels of tourist accommodation contracted to house refugees and asylum seekers are Meath (18 per cent), Wicklow (14 per cent); Mayo (12 per cent), Offaly (12 per cent) and Cork (10 per cent).
All other counties are below 10 per cent including just one per cent of tourism bed stock in Monaghan, Laois and Longford under contract.
Scientists on January 10 confirmed that 2024 marked the first full year in which global temperatures surpassed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This milestone, confirmed by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), highlights that climate change is driving temperatures to unprecedented levels for modern humans. According to C3S, the average global temperature in 2024 was 1.6°C higher than in the 1850-1900 period, commonly known as the pre-industrial era, before large-scale fossil fuel use. Last year’s temperatures surpassed the previous record set in 2023, continuing an upward trend. Related Articles
This increase crossed the critical 1.5°C threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, as confirmed by the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Service, the UK’s Meteorological Office, and Japan’s weather agency.
Samantha Burgess, Copernicus’ strategic climate lead, attributed the record temperatures to the accumulation of greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas. She added that the past decade has seen the hottest temperatures on record, likely the warmest in the last 125,000 years.
The hottest day recorded in 2024 occurred on July 10, with a global average temperature of 17.16°C (62.89°F), according to Copernicus data.
Experts agree that the primary driver of these record temperatures is the burning of fossil fuels, although a temporary El Niño warming event in the central Pacific and an undersea volcanic eruption in 2022 also played a role. The volcanic eruption contributed to temporary cooling by releasing reflective particles and water vapor into the atmosphere.
‘Urgent need for action’
Marshall Shepherd, a meteorology professor at the University of Georgia, warned that these extreme temperatures are signaling an urgent need for action. “This is a warning light going off on the Earth’s dashboard,” Shepherd told Phys.org. “We still have a few gears to go,” he added, citing weather events like Hurricane Helene, flooding in Spain, and wildfires in California as clear signs of the climate shift.
According to a reports, climate-related disasters caused $140 billion in losses globally in 2024, making it the third-highest amount on record, with North America suffering significant damage.
The impacts of climate change are now visible on every continent, affecting people from the richest to the poorest countries on earth.
Wildfires raging in California this week have killed at least 10 people and destroyed thousands of homes. In 2024, Bolivia and Venezuela also suffered disastrous fires, while torrential floods hit Nepal, Sudan and Spain, and heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia killed thousands.
While 2023 had also briefly exceeded the 1.5°C threshold, scientists emphasised that the 1.5°C goal represents a long-term average over 20 years.
Currently, global warming since the pre-industrial era is at 1.3°C, making it clear that the world is edging dangerously close to breaching the limits set by the Paris Agreement. Victor Gensini, a climate scientist at Northern Illinois University, pointed out that surpassing the 1.5°C mark — even for a single year — signals how close we are to those critical limits.
A 2018 UN study showed that limiting warming to 1.5°C could prevent the extinction of coral reefs, mitigate massive ice sheet loss in Antarctica, and reduce human suffering.
Burgess noted that it is increasingly likely that Earth will exceed the 1.5°C threshold, but she stressed the importance of the Paris Agreement, urging countries to stay committed to it.
More warming likely
Looking ahead, climate models suggest that 2025 may not be as hot as 2024, partly due to a cooling La Niña phase following last year’s El Niño. However, the first six days of January 2025 were already the hottest start to a year on record, according to Copernicus data.
While scientists are divided on whether global warming is accelerating, Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus, observed that ocean heat content is rising at an increasing rate, which could indicate accelerating change.
Climate change is also worsening storms and torrential rainfall across the world, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. The amount of water vapour in the planet’s atmosphere reached a record high in 2024.