Publication Date July 31, 2023 | Climate Nexus Hot News

'The Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived'

Volunteers are shown preparing heat kits in Phoenix.
The City of Phoenix Heat Response Program team volunteers Natalie Boyd, left, and David Coughenour, right, prepare heat relief kits for the public in need July 20, 2023, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

his July, residents of the planet Earth experienced the hottest July of at least the last 120,000 years, according to new analysis.  But unless fossil fuel use is curtailed, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the UN's World Meteorological Organization warned, this sort of brutal summer — in which heatwaves in Europe fuel "blowtorch"-like wildfires, will become common. What is currently, "unprecedented," like water temperatures off of Florida above 100°F, (ideal for hot tubs but not coral reefs bleaching in the heat) will perhaps be looked at fondly as a time when media stories about climate impacts on vacations were still pleasant diversions, and not punctuated by warnings about how U.S. National Parks are "like an oven." While announcing that this summer has been the hottest since the age of homo erectus, UN Secretary General António Guterres declared, "The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” 

(Hottest month: APAxiosCBSScientific AmericanScientific AmericanThe TimesThe IndependentGristCarbon BriefPolitico Pro $; U.S. heat: ReutersAP; National parks and vacations:  The GuardianCBSThe Independent; European heat: The Guardian; Ocean heat: CNNWashington Post $, APThe IndependentNew York Times $, APThe GuardianAP; Mediterranean fires, "like a blowtorch": The GuardianReutersBBC; Other wildfires: ReutersForbesReuters; "Global boiling": Washington Post $)

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