Unless you already live in a bunker or a cave, you have noticed that the past few weeks have been quite hotter than the usual. Nope, it’s not you, it’s real. June was the hottest month recorded ever and a few successive days in July were the hottest days recorded ever as well. According to Reuters :
Last month was the hottest June globally on record, with abnormally high temperatures recorded on both land and sea, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday.
Last month smashed through the previous temperature record for the month of June – which was in 2019 – by a substantial margin, Copernicus said.
Globally, June was just over 0.5C above the average temperature for the same month in 1991-2020, Copernicus said, as climate change pushes global temperatures to new records and short-term weather patterns also drive temperature movements.
Countries have declared climate emergency for seven years now but keep on heavily subsidizing fossil fuels use. in fact, the covid pandemic saw a large increase of such subsidies. Actually, to The Guardian, such noxious use of public money actually almost doubled in 2021. Yup…
Recent extreme climate events such as the gigantic fires in Canada, flash floods in India and Spain… The litany of bad news goes on and on.
We are still very much stuck in the world of yesterday and we are absolutely failing to prepare for the world of tomorrow. If solar and wind are becoming increasingly prominent in the electricity mix of the European Union, the UK and the US, their rise is still too slow to counter emissions increase or near stability in most sectors.
Transportation relies every day more on pickup trucks and SUVs, agriculture globally is still very much into a destructive model fuelled by deforestation, pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers and we are failing to make our buildings ready for temperatures that will increasingly be over 30, 35 or even 40 C (86, 95 and 104 F for my American readers)…
Technical solutions exist and have been existing for a while now. What lacks is the political leadership and courage. Unfortunately, political courage has never reelected anyone.
To bring some levity to this post and end on some lighter note, please check out Bill Nye on Last Week Tonight back to 2019. Warning, language…
Image credits : Matt Palmer on Unsplash
