The future we've feared is already here. In a new report, researchers detail how grim the climate crisis has become in 2026, and how Earth's climate system continues to plunge farther and faster into terrible new territory. "Rapid destabilization is now a diagnosis rather than a warning for the future," says co-lead author William Ripple, an ecologist at the Oregon State University College of Forestry. Climate change can still get even worse, of course, and humanity still has cards to play.