As Trump attacks US science agencies, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred ushers in a fresh wave of climate denial in Australia | Adam Morton

Trump administration has sacked more than a thousand staff from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

The agency is the country’s leading agency for weather forecasting and climate science.

In Australia , the past week has seen a fresh wave of climate denial as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred approached and hit southern Queensland coast.

Evidence is that this is making tropical cyclones less frequent but more intense.

There had been a “massive step-change up” in warming since June 2023 , when temperatures vaulted well beyond what was already a historically high level.

Howden described the past 18 months as “mind-boggling” and “like more than a decade of temperature increase in two years ” Scientists don’t exactly know why this happened.