The climate crisis is slowing the Earth's rotation and may affect clocks. Changes in the speed at which our planet rotates lead timekeepers to introduce or even remove leap seconds from the common standard of clocks.
If the polar ice had not melted, clocks around the world might have needed to subtract a single second as early as 2026. The effect of the climate crisis has delayed that possibility by about three years. If timekeeping organizations eventually decide to add a negative leap second, the adjustment could disrupt computer networks.