Welcome back to Climatific, a free, weekly read on climate science emailed right to your inbox. We’re breaking it down so it makes sense- not for scientists or researchers, but for everyday people trying to understand the planet we live on, what’s happening to it, and why it matters.
With less than two days left in 2025, it’s only right that we dedicate this issue to a year in review. Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of what’s happened to the climate, shall we? Before we do…
Cooking Up New Year’s Resolutions? We recommend this article on the biggest ways to reduce your carbon footprint and how much it can actually influence the climate. Spoiler: Improving home energy efficiency through heat pumps and solar panels, choosing public transit or biking/walking instead of a gas-powered vehicle, and opting for plant-based proteins are among the highest.
But don’t forget about the resolution of advocating for local, state, and broader government climate action, too. After all, oil giant British Petroleum (BP) is responsible for introducing us to the concept of an individual carbon footprint back in 2004. If it sounds like a massive deflection campaign, that’s because it was. And wildly successful.
Set your family and friends up for success in 2026, too, by sharing Climatific with one easy button:
🌎 The Good
When you reflect on this past year, what do you consider the biggest technology breakthrough? For Science, it’s not gene editing, robots, or even AI. It is renewable energy.
Renewable energy refers to natural sources of energy that can replenish at rates quicker than they’re consumed. This includes solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower energy.
This year, three extremely exciting things happened in the world of renewable energy:
1.2%. The percentage by which renewable energy outpaced coal as a source of electricity worldwide. Yup, you read that right. What’s more: solar and wind energy supply increased enough to surpass the global increase in electricity use for the first six months of 2025. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
2 gigawatts of solar power capacity. The amount of solar energy that goes online every single day in 2025. In 2004, it took the world a full year to install 1 gigawatt- half the amount of energy!
10% emissions reduction over the next decade. China’s climate commitment as of September 2025 through a transition to renewable energy. Ten percent might not sound like much, but this is a big deal considering China is the world’s largest emitter and second-largest economy. Plus, when countries talk about setting emissions reduction targets, it usually looks something like this:
Gif by sonyanimation on Giphy
A finger-pointing match.
It’s time for the US to take some notes. While China has not exactly been a poster child for environmentalism in the past—or really now (they’re still building coal-fired power plants!)—their transition to renewable energy in 2024 and 2025 has plateaued the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s one small step for China, and one large step for humankind.
🌎 The Bad
$120 billion. The worldwide cost of heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and storms in 2025. Fires in California alone cost the US $60 billion and more than 400 lives. These fires cost more than the damage from floods and cyclones in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, and China combined, which totaled $36.1 billion and killed nearly 2,000 people.
Hear it from the CEO of Christian Aid, a faith-based organization committed to ending poverty and inequality:
“These climate disasters are a warning of what lies ahead if we do not accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels... The suffering caused by the climate crisis is a political choice. It is being driven by decisions to continue burning fossil fuels, to allow emissions to rise, and to break promises on climate finance. In 2026, world leaders must act - supporting communities already adapting at a local level, and providing the resources urgently needed to protect lives, land, and livelihoods.”
14 → 50. For the first time, researchers were able to link individual companies to specific heatwave events. After studying hundreds of heatwaves and nearly 200 fossil fuel companies, they found that “14 companies alone polluted enough to individually cause over 50 heatwaves.”
12%. Economists have estimated that our climate change bill is already here. After factoring in the hidden costs of rising temperatures related to things like labor productivity, electricity demand, and crop yields, they estimate our personal income in the US has been reduced by roughly 12%.
🌎 The Ugly
Ah, yes. The best for last! 2025 saw lots of pretty ugly records. We’ll limit our review to four to save your sanity:
428.49 parts per million (ppm). The current level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, roughly 3.06 ppm higher than this time last year and 113 ppm higher than where we should be (anywhere from 280 and 350 ppm).
77 degrees. The record-breaking temperature that Oklahoma City reached two days before Christmas this year. Nearly two dozen states throughout the central US also experienced temperatures in the 70s this week, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, and Kentucky. These temperatures are 15-30 degrees warmer than average.
84%. The percentage of coral reefs worldwide that are currently affected by the largest coral bleaching event on record. Coral bleaching is the result of ocean acidification, which is what happens when the ocean takes up too much carbon dioxide to try to compensate for how much is in the atmosphere. There are four coral bleaching events on record, and all of them have happened in very recent history: 1998, 2010, 2014-2017, and 2023-present.
Tripled. The amount by which the rate of sea level rise has risen in only the last three decades. As of 2025, the masses of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are at record lows. Combined, these ice sheets account for 99% of global land ice and 67% of Earth’s freshwater.
🌎 In the Forecast
Next week, we’re diving into polarization. Not the Antarctic kind of polar, but the political kind. After all, some of the most influential environmental legislation has been passed by Republican presidents, and we need to bring that energy into 2026!
We’re not as divided as we think.
Gif by Bounce_TV on Giphy
Have a specific topic on climate science you want to learn about?
🌎 Hungry for more science?
More on the Good: Science Names Renewable Energy the Breakthrough of the Year
More on the Ugly: The 2025 State of the Climate Report: A Planet on the Brink
Wondering where you are or how you got here? Allow us to fill you in.
🌎 Abstract
You're not a climate denier, but you're not the Lorax, either. You recycle when you can, and you're at least mildly concerned when you see news headlines about extreme weather events that you don't remember happening even a few decades ago. You want to learn more about the climate, but not enough to want to spend large chunks of time reading and sifting through news posts and research articles.
Does this describe you? If so, welcome aboard.
Climatific strips the politics from climate change to provide brief weekly lessons on what the Earth’s climate is, how it works, and why it matters. It saves you time, energy, and resources by sending a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) on climate science right to your inbox on Tuesday mornings.
Climatific calls on climate science, not the news, to help you better navigate the conversations around you.
No buzzwords, just science.
🌎Methodology
What Climatific is:
A 5 to 10-minute weekly read on what the Earth’s climate is and how it works
A complete overview of climate science
What Climatific is not:
Politically biased or affiliated
A newsletter
We hope you enjoyed this issue of Climatific. In the coming year, we’ll dive into more about climate science, how human activity is influencing the climate, and its ties to everything from insurance premiums to the price of your morning coffee.
Got feedback in the meantime? We want to hear it!
Thanks for tuning in. See you next year! 😉
Stay curious,
Climatific
