global temperatures

Ars Live recap: Climate science in a rapidly changing world

The conversation then moved to the record we have of the Earth’s surface temperatures and the role of Berkeley Earth in providing an alternate method of calculating those. While the temperature records were somewhat controversial in the past, those arguments have largely settled down, and Berkeley Earth played a major role in helping to show that the temperature records have been reliable.

Lately, those temperatures have been unusually high, crossing 1.5° C above pre-industrial conditions for the first time and remaining elevated for months at a stretch. Scientists have been coming up with a number of explanations and figuring out how to test them. Hausfather described those tests and what we’re learning about how these things might be influencing the trajectory of our warming.

From there, we moved on to user questions, which addressed issues like tipping points, the potential use of geoengineering, and what things Hausfather would most like to see in terms of better data and new questions to answer. For details on these issues and the answers to viewer questions, see the video above. We also have a full transcript of the conversation.

Today! Ars Live: What’s up with the sudden surge in temperatures?

ars live, Berkeley Earth, Climate science, global temperatures, Science / 9u50fv / June 26, 2025

At 1pm on Thursday, we encourage you to join us for a live chat with Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and researcher at Berkeley Earth. We’ll talk a bit about how he got into climate science and ended up at Berkeley Earth and the role that organization plays in the world of climate science. It was launched by a physicist who was somewhat skeptical of the work being done by climate scientists, but it has evolved into one of the key groups that does the math needed to track the planet’s temperatures.

For the past couple of years, those temperatures have seen a remarkable rise to record highs, at one point setting a yearlong string where every month set a record for the warmest instance of that month on record. The rise leaves us at risk of exceeding key climate targets much earlier than expected and has left the climate science community scrambling to explain the intensity of the heat. So we plan to ask Zeke a bit about what scientists are thinking about the dramatic nature of these changes, attempts to explore the relationship between temperatures, and things like tipping points and individual weather events.

And all that leads to the key question: What does this tell us about where our climate is likely to go over the rest of this century?

After that, we’d like to turn things over to your questions. Is there anything you’ve always wanted to know about climate science but didn’t know who to ask? Zeke may be your guy—and if not, then he almost certainly knows who is. So please join us for this discussion, happening Thursday, June 26, at 1 pm US Eastern Time.

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