Lest we forget, even if the Middle East war were not raging today, the planet would still be in crisis.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, the climate of the earth is the most out of balance on record, with greenhouse gas concentrations driving the continued warming of the atmosphere and of oceans, and the melting of ice.
“Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.
“On a day-to-day basis, our weather has become more extreme. In 2025, heatwaves, wildfires, drought, tropical cyclones, storms and flooding caused thousands of deaths, impacted millions of people and caused billions in economic losses.”
The WMO’s State of the Global Climate Report 2025 confirmed that the 11-year period from 2015 to 2025 are the hottest years on record, and that last year was the second or third hottest year on record, with 1.43 degrees Celsius above the average from 1850-1900. The preceding year, 2024, was the hottest, with about 1.55 degrees Celsius above the reference period’s average. The year 2024 started with a strong El Niño.
And yet the warming seen at the surface and throughout the troposphere represents just 1% of the excess energy trapped by greenhouse gases. The vast majority of the excess energy – around 91% – has been absorbed by the ocean in the form of heat. Ocean heat content reached a new record high in 2025, reflecting the continued increase in energy. Another 3% of the excess energy warms and melts ice.
Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The State of the Global Climate is in a state of emergency. Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red.”
The results are not difficult to recognize: heatwaves, wildfires, drought, tropical cyclones, storms and flooding are climate patterns that have devastated millions across the globe.
Filipinos know this all too well. Every time there is a typhoon and consequent flooding, entire communities are affected, with lives and livelihoods lost. Those most vulnerable to disasters are often the least protected members of society, with disaster risk reduction and management plans at best uneven across local governments.
These are the same groups of people that would be most adversely affected – if they are not being affected already – by the looming hard times from the fuel shortage and rise in the price of goods and services as a result of the war. They will be the first to feel the higher costs, perhaps the first to be let go in the event companies cut their expenses. They are the ones without savings to tide them through difficult times.
Runaway climate change wreaking havoc on our weather patterns is a consequence of cumulative decisions taken by powerful decision makers across centuries and decades. It boggles the mind why, as if the world did not have enough trouble, the same powerful set of people could willfully inflict death and destruction on others deemed not on their side. Worse, their decisions appear to have been arrived at on pure whim, with nary a thought on how innocent and poor civilians are affected.
The rest of us can only sit back and watch in horror at how our future gets bleaker and more desperate over time. We wonder if anyone could ever truly lead by serving, and if world leaders could set aside their pettiness and egocentrism. These days the bar has been set so low we are just hoping that they simply do not cause further harm, instead of actually stemming the tide of destruction.
