1. A Crippling Drought Is Unfolding

As I write this, almost half of the U.S. population is facing drought conditions. So what? Drought ultimately affects agriculture, food supply, water availability and prices. Much of the South, West and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country are experiencing extreme to exceptional drought. For some of the locations in the South, it will take 1 to 2 feet of rainfall to end the drought, but there are no immediate signs of relief through Earth Day.

2. Wildfires Increasingly Burn Through The Night

"Wildfires used to go to sleep at night,” read an Associated Press headline to a piece by Seth Borenstein. A new study in the journal Science Advances found that climate change is leading to more potential burning hours in a daily cycle, particularly in western mountains and boreal forests. Using weather satellite data sampling over 9,000 fires, researchers concluded that burning hours were increasing, especially at night.

A previous study published in Nature also found that wildfires are increasingly burning through the night. “Drought is a main driver of fires burning through the night," according to NASA’s website. "Feeding these models one or several variables, they were able to accurately predict when a fire would burn through the night.”

3. Ocean Conveyor Belt Weakening

Another headline that grabbed my attention this week is related to the ecean conveyor belt. As photos from Artemis astronauts reminded us, Earth is a water planet, and the oceans have an oversized impact on our lives. They provide food, avenues for transportation and regulation of our weather-climate system.

“Surface currents are influenced by the wind. However, other, much slower currents that occur from the surface to the seafloor are driven by changes in the saltiness and ocean temperature, a process called thermohaline circulation,” noted NOAA’s Ocean Services website. "These currents are carried in a large ‘global conveyor belt,’ which includes the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation."

If you saw the movie Day After Tomorrow, disruption of this ocean circulation pattern was the premise of the planet’s weather going crazy. Of course, the impacts were exaggerated. It was a movie. However, scientists have been concerned about this for a long time, and a new study suggests that the AMOC could weaken more than expected by 2100.

“While a complete collapse of the system is not considered imminent, there is growing evidence that it may be weakening. Climate change, particularly the influx of freshwater from melting ice, can interfere with the balance of temperature and salinity that drives the circulation,” according to a post on the Arctic Portal website.

Greenland and the massive ice sheets of Antarctica are large sources of freshwater that could affect the AMOC. Earlier this year, an expedition ventured to Antarctica to investigate the so-called “doomsday glacier.” Noted journalist and colleague Mile O’Brien documented this journal to the Thwaites Glacier.

My University of Georgia colleague Tom Mote is a leading expert on cryospheric processes, including melting events in Greenland. He has studied these processes for decades. “Earth’s complexity and changes are scientifically interesting, but also have real implications for our Arctic policy, national security, and our coastal infrastructure,” he wrote in a 2019 editorial for The Hill.

4. The Climate Dismissive Crowd Is Smaller Than You Think

Whenever I speak about climate change in public spaces, there is inevitably a question about how to address skepticism or denialism. My answer usually centers around recommendations to engage if there is an opportunity to counter misinformation, disinformation or gaps in science literacy. Of course, there are corners of society that fall into a perennially dismissive category.

The Yale Program on Climate Collaboration and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication conduct the “6 Americas” study annually. They consistently find that the “dismissive” category holds pretty steady at less than 12%. However, that small group is loud and motivated on social media and other outlets. The graphic above shows that people in the “alarmed” category have steadily increased over the past decade. Opportunities to educate about the topic lie within the “cautious,”disengaged" or “doubtful” categories.

5. Hurricane Season And El Niño

Many of us are watching to see if the eastern central Pacific ocean flips from La Niña to El Niño. I discussed this possibility in a recent article. While there is still uncertainty, seasonal hurricane forecasters are accounting for it.

“We anticipate that the 2026 Atlantic basin hurricane season will have somewhat below-normal activity,” wrote the Colorado State University team noted for its seasonal predictions. “Current weak La Niña conditions are likely to transition to El Niño in the next few months, with the potential for a moderate/strong El Niño for the peak of hurricane season.”

Though water temperatures are likely going to be warm, increased vertical shear associated with altered jet stream patterns is the primary indicator of the “below normal” activity prediction. However, you should consume seasonal forecasts as “informational,” not “gospel.” It only takes one bad storm to make for a terrible season.

6. Misinformation And Disinformation

Social media and the internet have equalized access to information. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it comes with challenges. There are no guidelines to help people who “do their own research” discern what is credible information. Just because it is in a blog, video or post doesn’t mean it is credible. It’s actually stunning that people will tell scientists they are clueless or liars because they understand the proper context for things like HAARP, cloud seeding studies and geoengineeing proposals.

Here is breaking news. Scientists know about all of those things. You are not telling them anything new when you share web links, gray literature reports and so on. They simply understand the context, scope and efficacy. It will always be a mystery why some people grasp onto those things yet dismiss the more obvious things like climate change. Oh, and by the way, yes, climate changes naturally and always will. However, it has an anthropogenic steroid on top of it. It’s not “either/or" — It’s “and.” This has become my tagline in almost anything I write about climate change.

In a previous article, I tried to debunk six of the top weather- and climate-related conspiracy theories out there. However, these days, my article “A Guide To Consuming Science Information Online - Be Careful” is more urgent. I ended that piece saying, “My intent herein was not to be dismissive of any of them. Instead, the goal was to challenge you to think about how you consume science information online and what you choose to share. Others may not have the same filter that you do when you share a ‘professional-looking’ document that has not been evaluated or peer-reviewed.”

Happy Earth Day. Let’s think about our planet daily because there is no alternative for us right now.