Climate Central Graph
Editor's note: Insight offers this press release from the non-profit research organization Climate Central for United Methodists to use in their advocacy for caring for God's creation.
Climate Central | Dec. 10, 2025
Carbon pollution from fossil fuels made record heat, hurricanes, fires, and floods worse in 2025, disrupting lives in the U.S. and beyond. Here are five ways:
- In 2025, carbon pollution made 89% of record high daily temperatures set across 247 major U.S. cities more likely — and influenced risky extreme heat events around the globe.
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year, devastated Jamaica after making landfall as a Category 5 storm. Carbon pollution boosted the storm’s peak wind speed, making it even more dangerous.
Carbon pollution also helped fuel the Los Angeles fires of January 2025 (the costliest on record), partly by making fire weather conditions at the time more likely and intense.
The U.S. saw a record number of flash floods in 2025, which included the deadly July floods in Texas. Carbon pollution brings heavier rainfall extremes and more of the inland flood hazards that marked 2025.
U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters — now tracked by Climate Central — had a record-costly start to 2025. Climate Central will release data for the full year early in 2026.
This Climate Matters analysis is based on open-access data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). See Methodology for details.