Climate crisis?
Environmental destruction?
Human-induced global warming?
The Guardian, one of the few large news media organizations committed to elevating the climate crisis to heights it commands, recently updated its environmental nomenclature. In place of “climate change” and “global warming,” The Guardian staff now will reference “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown,” and “global heating.”
But reality reflects “global scorching” more so than anything else:
- January 2019 was the hottest month on record in Australia, following a record-scorching December. January was so hot down under the average temperature for the entire month was 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
- A record heatwave is sweeping across Northern India, with one city hitting 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit) May 31 — considered the tail end of summer there. Yet record-high sweltering heat is forecast to continue through the weekend.
- The heat wave scorching the southeastern U.S. is expected to challenge records dating back to the late 1800s.
- Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency for nearly half the state, because mountain snow-pack conditions are less than 50 percent of normal levels in May. Rising spring-time temperatures mean less mountain snow, which reduces water availability in typically dry July and August.
- Back-to-back heat waves will increase, according to new research. Heat waves and accompanying droughts are blamed for 20 percent of deaths associated with natural disasters in the U.S.
Even the ocean has heat waves
Oceanic heat waves are a thing. The ocean not only is warming faster than oceanographers initially expected, it, too, experiences heat waves. The oceans, covering 70 percent of Earth, play a major role in global day-to-day weather patterns and long-term climate conditions.
Must the ocean burn before policy makers find the fortitude to reduce greenhouse emissions and initiate the urgency for a rapid shift to green, alternative energy?
Global scorching was why last winter was really cold
During the 2019 polar vortex, Chicago was colder than Antarctica. (Source: France 24)
But what about the record-low temperatures across much of the U.S. this past winter? The polar vortex is driven by the jet stream, but warmer wintertime arctic temperatures are disrupting the jet stream and unleashing frigid temperatures farther south in what could become the “new abnormal.”
Hot, hot, hot
The last five years — 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 — have been the five hottest years ever recorded. And 2019 is on pace to set more record high temperatures.
Call it what it is: “global scorching.” And, just as all data indicates the accelerated climate destruction due to unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, let’s accelerate the demand for action from incumbent policy makers at all levels. Support the candidates who aren’t beholden to fossil-fuel interests.
