August was the joint hottest month ever observed, tying with July 2023, as the most severe super El Ni帽o on record amplified temperatures already heightened by global warming.

The monthly mean temperature was 1.65掳C above pre-industrial levels, according to the European Union鈥檚 Copernicus Climate Change Service. Humans have not experienced temperatures warmer than this summer in the past 100,000 years, according to at Copernicus.

August was also a record-warm month for the extra-polar ocean 鈥� the regions lying just outside the Arctic and Antarctic circles 鈥� peaking at 21.1掳C, the hottest temperature ever observed in the sea surface. That included unprecedented temperatures in the tropical Pacific, where winds have slackened and warm waters have been sloshing back towards the eastern Pacific, creating the strong El Ni帽o.

鈥淎ugust 2026 is remarkable not simply because it鈥檚 yet another temperature record that鈥檚 been broken but because multiple parts of the climate system have reached unprecedented levels at the same time,鈥� she says.

The records will keep being broken as the El Ni帽o intensifies through December, she predicts, with some months likely to be as much as 2掳C above average.

The record August temperature caps off western Europe鈥檚 hottest summer on record. That warmth drives extreme weather and climate catastrophes. It makes heatwaves more likely and allows the atmosphere to hold more moisture, worsening storms.

Four major heatwaves in Europe, as well as severe drought, fuelled massive wildfires near cities like Bordeaux in France and Madrid in Spain and lowered water levels in major rivers to reveal everything from long-lost woolly mammoth bones to Nazi boats.

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At least in Europe during the heatwaves than would be statistically expected, and including wheat are expected to be lower than usual.

The heat in August was also linked to a glacier collapse that destroyed several towns in Nepal and Tibet, with at least 1300 people dead and more than 5500 still missing.

鈥淔or every degree of warming, the extreme events鈥� intensify, so in summer we get more frequent, more intense, more longer-lasting heatwaves,鈥� Burgess says. 鈥淭his obviously has a direct impact on our food security.鈥�

In light of the temperature record, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) 鈥� a UK-based think tank 鈥� called on leaders meeting in November for the COP31 climate summit to both reverse the rise in greenhouse gas emissions and also invest more in adapting to the current impacts.

Why the extremes of climate breakdown will continue to take us by surprise

The relentless heatwaves that have hit the northern hemisphere this summer have made the climate threat real for many 鈥� but preparation and adaptation will take us only so far

鈥淭he task now is to match the scale of the science with the scale of action鈥� accelerating the transition away from coal, oil and gas to bring our climate back into balance,鈥� , international lead at the ECIU, said in a statement.

The United Nations Environment Programme said this month that the world will 鈥渙vershoot鈥� the Paris Agreement goal of preventing warming of more than 1.5掳C and should now focus on reversing this warming at a later date, including with approaches like carbon dioxide removal. 聽

鈥淭he sooner we can bring temperatures back down, the less time we overshoot, the better it will be for our climate system,鈥� says Burgess.

鈥淚 often get asked whether this is the 鈥榥ew normal鈥�. The simple answer is no,鈥� at Imperial College London said in a statement. 鈥淯ntil we stop burning fossil fuels, these records will continue to tumble, and the extremes will worsen faster than we are able to adapt.鈥�

Growing seaweed has long been as a way to slow climate change. But this approach is mistaken, a new study argues, as the loss of seaweed emits far more carbon than what is being absorbed by attempts to grow it.

Seaweeds absorb an estimated 3.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis every year, drawing it from seawater, which then draws more CO2 from the air above. They mostly grow near the coast, where they are eventually digested or decomposed, emitting carbon. But fragments of fronds, as well as from the seaweeds that dissolve in seawater, can sink into the deep sea, sequestering a of the CO2 as 鈥溾�� for thousands of years.

女生小视频s and start-ups have suggested that seaweed growth, especially kelp, could be expanded to take up more CO2, something the UN has said we will need to do on a massive scale to eventually reverse dangerous levels of global warming.

But there are concerns that cultivating huge amounts of seaweed could backfire and diminish growth of phytoplankton, another important carbon sink. And even the kelp forests we currently have, which are estimated to cover around 640,000 square kilometres worldwide 鈥� an area slightly larger than France 鈥� are dying off as ocean temperatures reach record highs.

Now, at the University of Western Australia and her colleagues have concluded that, with some 60 per cent of kelp forests in decline, these ecosystems could eventually begin emitting more CO2 than they absorb. Researchers, as well as governments and companies trying to offset their emissions, need to focus on preserving rather than growing seaweed, they suggest.

鈥淚nstead of asking how much carbon we can remove with seaweeds, we should be asking how much carbon we can stop from being released as these ecosystems are damaged by climate change,鈥� says Filbee-Dexter.

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Some studies have the possibility of removing a billion tonnes of carbon per year with seaweed, but there are already signs that this may not be feasible. For instance, the US carbon removal start-up Running Tide, which raised $70 million to cultivate kelp on wooden buoys that would gradually sink into the deep sea, in the open ocean and shut down last year.

Other projects have tried to bring back lost kelp forests. An experiment in northern Norway of kelp by poisoning seaweed-eating sea urchins, which can multiply when overfishing and hunting remove their predators.

While kelp restoration like this is a win for biodiversity, it only draws down about 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Meanwhile, global kelp loss is emitting an estimated 14 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

The study by Filbee-Dexter and her colleagues also notes that preserving kelp ecosystems is at least eight times cheaper per hectare than restoring them, yet only 2 per cent of kelp forests lie in protected areas.

Firms are also cultivating seaweed to make nori for sushi, animal feed and thickeners for products like ice cream and toothpaste. Fragments of seaweed still drift away and sink into the deep sea, and aquaculture companies like Kelp Blue have to eventually sequester and offset hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2.

Seaweed farming now takes up 4000 square kilometres of ocean. But that鈥檚 only about a third of the kelp forest cover lost each year. And after factoring in emissions associated with farming operations 鈥� like boat fuel and plastic lines 鈥� nine out of 11 seaweed farms were found to emit more CO2 than they sequestered in a .

Microplastics could be hampering the ocean鈥檚 ability to capture carbon

A global survey of microplastics in oceans reveals that tiny particles of plastic are prevalent throughout the water column, which could harm marine ecosystems and affect carbon storage in the deep sea

鈥淪eaweed restoration and farming is unlikely to be a major climate change solution,鈥� Filbee-Dexter says. 鈥淏ut that doesn鈥檛 mean it isn鈥檛 worthwhile.鈥�

Restoration can improve biodiversity, and farming can make low-carbon alternatives to fossil-fuel products like fertiliser, she notes.

at Queen鈥檚 University Belfast in the UK, however, says scientists don鈥檛 have a solid enough understanding of how much carbon seaweed sequesters to write it off yet. Macroalgae restoration, conservation and farming can all still be climate solutions, even if their impact has often been exaggerated in the past, she argues.

鈥淏lue carbon is part of the puzzle,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t can make a contribution. The question is how that is determined and validated.鈥�

At a gathering of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society in a pub in 2008, caver Charlie Self PhD student Gina Moseley a photograph of a cave in a limestone cliff just beyond the north-western edge of the Greenland ice sheet. Thought to be the northernmost cave in the world, it had been photographed from a US military aircraft in 1958, but never explored.

But Self also gave Moseley a report about calcite flowstone, formed by trickling water, that was found in a cave in north-eastern Greenland. Today, groundwater there is frozen in permafrost, so this flowstone must have come from a warmer, wetter time. A sample could provide a climate record exceeding the 130,000 years in Greenland ice cores, Moseley thought.

Starting in 2015, Moseley and her partner, photographer Robbie Shone, mounted four expeditions to Greenland, finally reaching that northernmost known cave, pictured above. While they didn鈥檛 find any flowstone there, they did obtain some from caves in north-eastern Greenland that showed the ground there hadn鈥檛 frozen 鈥� and vegetation had even grown 鈥� during three periods between 5 million and 10 million years ago.

It was a snapshot of a past world, but also a warning about how drastically global warming could alter Greenland in the future.

鈥淭his occurred in a world with CO2 levels that we already surpassed several decades ago,鈥� says Moseley.

In the top image, expedition member Chris Blakeley stands in the entrance of the northernmost known cave, found on the Wulff Land peninsula, after rappelling down. Below, Blakeley explores a cave in north-eastern Greenland named Crystal Palace for the hoarfrost on its ceiling.

Below, Blakeley sits in Keyhole cave, named for the shape of its entrance, where the team collected two flowstone samples.

Shone calls the caves 鈥渢ime machines鈥� that may be some of the last unexplored places on Earth, as there are no current Inuit settlements in north-eastern Greenland. But the team nonetheless witnessed the effects of human-made climate change there, including summer temperatures of 16掳C.

鈥淏y early evening, after a full day of sunshine on the ice cap, the rivers were huge, they were bursting and they were brown,鈥� says Shone. 鈥淵ou could physically see how much water had melted on the ice cap.鈥�

Below, the team explores another cave in the area, after a 6-metre vertical climb to get into it. A huge coating of blue ice was found on the cave鈥檚 back wall.

In the final image, below, Blakeley and researcher Gabriella Koltai scramble to board a helicopter hovering near a cave in the Wulff Land peninsula before a storm arrives. The team named the cave R66 after the model of helicopter that rushed them out of there.