First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable.” Like the striking of the clock in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, we hear that each year was warmer than the year before, and we’re reminded that, with climate change, there’s no turning back time.

Not only was 2024 the hottest year on record; our models can’t fully explain how hot it has gotten. Temperatures crossed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, edging us closer to several “tipping points,” like the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet and the melting of Arctic permafrost. Then there were the many hellish disasters — flash flooding in Spain, a hurricane in North Carolina, deadly heat waves during the Hajj, and, most recently, wildfires in Los Angeles.

Despite blips of progress, the world is failing to meet the moment. Global emissions increased in 2024. Renewable energy isn’t being deployed fast enough, and energy demands are growing. Here in the United States, emissions in 2024 essentially flatlined, when they should be dropping 7 to 8 percent per year, and prospects for the next four years are bleak.