Global surface temperature has risen 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The rate of warming has doubled since the 1980s, with ocean heat content reaching record highs in consecutive years.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide now exceeds 427 parts per million, the highest level in at least 800,000 years. The annual rate of increase has accelerated from 1 ppm per year in the 1960s to over 2.5 ppm today.
Global mean sea level has risen approximately 100 millimeters since 1993, with the rate of rise doubling from 2.5 mm per year to over 4.6 mm per year in the satellite era.
Restoring degraded forests and expanding tree cover can sequester up to 10 gigatons of CO2 annually. Tropical forests alone hold an estimated 250 billion tons of carbon in their biomass, and secondary growth forests actively draw carbon from the atmosphere at rates exceeding mature stands.
The top meter of Earth's soil holds roughly 2,500 gigatons of carbon -- more than three times the amount in the atmosphere. Regenerative agricultural practices, cover cropping, and reduced tillage can significantly increase soil organic carbon, turning farmland from a carbon source into a carbon sink.
Coastal ecosystems -- mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes -- sequester carbon at rates up to 40 times faster than tropical forests on a per-area basis. These blue carbon sinks store carbon in waterlogged sediments for millennia, making their conservation a critical climate strategy.
We are not separate from the carbon cycle. We are the carbon cycle becoming aware of itself.