At international forums for global solidarity such as New York Climate Week and the United Nations General Assembly, rhetoric denying scientific facts based on political stances has raised grave concerns among the scientific community researching on the frontlines of climate change, as well as academia and industry working hard on field implementation.

“New York Climate Week” is an annual event held alongside the high-level session of the UN General Assembly in New York, where governments, businesses, investors, and civil society from around the world gather to discuss solutions to the climate crisis. On the final day of this event—meant to rally global action against climate change—President Trump claimed that “the climate crisis is a hoax.”

President Trump posted a Fox News video on his social media platform, Truth Social, labeling it as “must-watch content regarding the climate scam.” The video featured an interview with Marc Morano, editor of Climate Depot and a prominent climate change skeptic in the U.S., who has long argued that the climate crisis is a fiction and that green policies are merely a tool for socialist control.

Such statements by President Trump highlight the severity of a figure in a position to represent the American public projecting personal biases as if they were the voice of the entire nation, deeply troubling many scientists, academics, and business leaders striving to protect the planet.

Moving beyond specific political rhetoric or opposing positions, this article provides a multi-dimensional analysis of the current climate crisis based on rigorous scientific data and physical mechanisms, explained in an accessible way.

1. Atmosphere and Greenhouse Gases: Why Earth’s “Thermal Blanket” Has Thickened

The most fundamental transformation in Earth’s climate system is the change in atmospheric composition.

Atmospheric CO2 Concentration Data

According to global monitoring networks, including the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration—which stood at approximately 278 ppm before the Industrial Revolution—has surged past 425 ppm in recent observations. This is a level Earth has not experienced in millions of years.

Pre-Industrial Era: 278 ppm ===>  Present (2025–2026): 425+ ppm (approx 53% increase)

Scientific Mechanism: The Greenhouse Effect

Energy arriving from the Sun reaches the Earth’s surface in the form of shortwave radiation. The surface absorbs this energy and re-emits it back toward space as longwave radiation (thermal energy).

Greenhouse gas molecules in the atmosphere—such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2 O)—absorb this long wave radiation and re-radiate it in all directions. As greenhouse gas concentrations increase, the amount of heat trapped within the atmosphere rather than escaping into space grows continuously. Metaphorically, this is a physical phenomenon where the padded winter jacket worn by the Earth is getting thicker every year.

2. Oceans and Glaciers: Reaching the Limits of Earth’s 90% Heat Absorption

Occupying over 70% of the Earth’s surface, the oceans act as the planet’s primary heat sink.

Earth’s Total Excess Energy Distribution

• Ocean Heat Content (OHC): 90% absorbed by oceans
• Atmosphere, Land Surface, & Ice Melting: approx 10%

Ocean Heat Capacity and Temperature Rise

The oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess thermal energy trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases.

• Ocean Heat Content (OHC): Heat content down to a depth of 2,000 meters continues to break record highs every year.
• Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise: Water expands in volume as its temperature rises. Combined with the volume of water entering the sea from melting glaciers, this thermal expansion accelerates the global average sea level rise.

The Vicious Cycle of the Albedo Effect

White ice and snow at the poles reflect a significant portion of sunlight (high albedo). However, as global warming melts glaciers and exposes dark ocean water, the surface absorbs sunlight instead of reflecting it (low albedo).

This triggers a critical self-reinforcing feedback loop:

Glacier Melting ➔ Dark Ocean Surface Exposed ➔ Increased Heat Absorption ➔ Accelerated Melting

3. The Thermodynamic Framework of Extreme Weather

The scientific answer to the question “Why is a 1–2°C increase in average temperature such a big deal?” lies in the laws of thermodynamics.

Thermodynamic Law: The Clausius-Clapeyron Relation

For every 1°C rise in atmospheric temperature, the water vapor holding capacity of the atmosphere increases by approximately 7%.

• Torrential Rain and Flooding: As atmospheric moisture capacity rises rapidly, extreme rainfall events become more frequent, pouring down like a squeezed sponge during precipitation.
• Droughts and Megafires: Conversely, in dry regions, elevated temperatures accelerate the evaporation of moisture from soil and vegetation, creating extreme high-temperature and arid conditions that lead to larger, more frequent wildfires.

Temperature Increase (+1°C) ➔ Atmospheric Moisture Capacity (+7%)

• Wet Regions: Accelerated heavy rainfall and severe flooding
• Dry Regions: Rapid land moisture evaporation ➔ Extreme droughts and megafires
• Jet Stream Weakening: Reduced temperature differential between the Arctic and mid-latitudes ➔ Stagnant cold snaps and heatwaves

Jet Stream Weakening and Weather Stagnation

The Arctic is warming roughly three times faster than the rest of the planet — a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification. As the temperature gradient between the Arctic and mid-latitudes diminishes, the high-speed jet stream that circulates global weather patterns loses strength and begins to meander intensely. This causes high or low-pressure systems to stall over specific regions for prolonged periods, triggering severe heat domes or prolonged arctic cold waves.

4. Conclusion: What the Data Proves

Climate change is not a matter of “opinion” or “ideology” belonging to any political faction or individual. It is an independently verified physical fact corroborated by satellite observations, ocean buoys (Argo floats), ice core data, and weather station instruments collected across the globe by tens of thousands of scientists.

Short-term political slogans and skeptical assertions lose their ground when faced with visible climate disasters and empirical scientific data. Addressing the climate crisis is not an ideological debate; it is an urgent scientific imperative to protect the thermodynamic boundaries necessary for human survival within Earth’s ecosystem.