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Weather across the U.S. this year has pingponged from waves of intense cold and snow in the East Coast and Midwest, followed by sudden warming, to heavy rain and a record heatwave on the West Coast–which melted winter snow in the Sierras too fast and too early, ensuring less water flows to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, one of the trends that has been consistent is rising ocean temperatures.

Over the past few weeks, labs such as the European Union Copernicus Climate Change Service determined that the average surface temperature of global seas in March was 69.75 degrees Fahrenheit (20.97 Celsius), the second-highest level ever recorded. And in California, researchers at Scripps recently found that the typically chilly Pacific is also hotter, clocking in at 68.5 degrees, 7.7 degrees above the average for mid-April.

What those findings mean is that conditions are again ideal for El Niño: a climate pattern that drives up global surface temperatures. That makes it likely that 2026 will continue a streak of global heat records that’s persisted for over a decade, with each subsequent year being hotter than the one that preceded it. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this month that March 2026 was the hottest on record in the contiguous United States, capping a 12-month period that was also the hottest ever.

The consistency of the data confirms that climate change is a fact of life. Along with general discomfort for humans, more heat means more stress on global agriculture and water systems, and costs to upgrade infrastructure to adapt to more intense weather.

As this unfolds, climate denialism is also on the rise in the U.S. as the Trump administration lobbies entities such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to set aside climate-oriented policies and increase support for carbon-based energy projects. At recent meetings of those institutions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that their focus should be on economic growth, trade and development. And when it comes to climate, “we cannot have these elite beliefs get in the way,” he said, according to the New York Times.

Setting aside that many would consider Bessent–a Yale graduate who’s worked in global finance for decades and has a net worth Forbes estimates to be $600 million–to be quite elite, it’s........

© Forbes