We are halfway through 2024, and global warming is continuing to break records, with scientists increasingly predicting that this year could surpass 2023 as the hottest year. One thing is abundantly clear: climate change is more than a potential threat—it is here.
Communities around the world are seeing sea levels rise, flooding worsen, drought conditions intensify, biodiversity lost, and much more. The climate impacts are crashing directly into countless other pre-existing challenges, creating the truly global crisis that we now understand climate change to be.
Extreme weather, for example, forces people to migrate and drives conflicts over increasingly scarce resources. One prime example is South Sudan, where changing climate patterns have increased tensions between smallholder farmers relying on rain-fed agriculture and nomadic pastoralists. As available fertile land decreases, more communities are forced to compete for existing resources.
These openings for conflicts are not limited to just South Sudan. The 2023 State of the Global Climate Report by the World Meteorological Organization found that the climate crisis has impacted tens of millions of people worldwide. It has led to billions of dollars in losses and damages, devastated food systems, and increased communal tensions.
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