Things are really heating up out there.
This week saw the hottest average global temperature ever recorded, according to data from two climate tracking agencies.
On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (or 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit for American meteorological enthusiasts), the highest in the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s data, dating back to 1979. The next day, it climbed even further, reaching 17.18 degrees Celsius where global temperatures have hovered until yesterday.
This global record is a preliminary one, but it’s a solid indication of how fast the world is heating up, as the arrival of the natural climate phenomenon El Niño, which has a warming effect, is stacked on top of climate change-fueled global heating. According to experts, we can expect to see this record broken soon, and frequently.
“It’s not a record to celebrate and it won’t be a record for long, with northern hemisphere summer still mostly ahead and El Niño developing.”
-Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment/heir to the German throne
This year has already seen heat records broken around the world, with devastating consequences. In the States, Texas and the South suffered through a brutal heat wave in late June, with triple-digit temperatures and extreme humidity. Temperatures in Mexico have killed at least 112 people since March. Separately, a heat wave in India has killed at least 44 people across the state of Bihar and China has experienced a few heat waves of its own.
Not to get too catastrophic, but I’m pretty sure this is how the climate catastrophe film “The Day After Tomorrow” (A Dennis Quaid classic) begins.
Side Items
Last Laugh: Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated “Central Park Five,” has won a democratic primary in New York City, all but guaranteeing him a seat on the City Council. It’s an unlikely feat for a man new to politics who was wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned as a teenager for the rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park. Salaam’s primary win is for the seat representing central Harlem
Scary Hours: A violent drug cartel in Mexico is suspected of leaving several human limbs around the state capital as something of a sick intimidation tactic. Yesterday a human leg was found hanging from a pedestrian bridge in Toluca, just west of Mexico City. Before the day was out, parts of at least two other bodies had turned up around the city. At the bridge, a body part was left on the street below, near the city’s center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel. In this world there are good guys and there are bad guys, and then there are these guys, in a category all by themselves
UPS Negotiations Fail: Around 4am Tuesday, UPS walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer to the union of Teamsters that did not address members’ needs. The UPS Teamsters contract covers more than 340,000 full- and part-time workers and expires on July 31. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the package and no additional negotiations are scheduled. These freight workers are estimated to control up to 6% of the national economy. Hope y’all don’t have any packages you’re waiting on