Rolling Stone -At a press conference in New York, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres announced that the month of July had reached 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a figure that “at least equaled if not surpassed the hottest month in recorded history,” according to data released by the World Meteorological Organization. Temperature information from July is still streaming in, but preliminary data show last month’s warmth is roughly on par, or perhaps slightly warmer than the previous record of July 2016.
In cities and towns around the world, record high temperatures outpaced record low temperatures on nearly a 3-to-1 basis during July, underscoring the fact that this crisis is being felt almost everywhere, by almost everyone.
Jean-Noël Thépaut, the head of the World Meteorological Organization’s climate service, told Rolling Stone the new record was “very disturbing.”
“As a citizen I am as concerned as anyone else with what is happening,” Thépaut said. “My children are experiencing extreme weather situations which did not exist when I was their age.”
The world’s current climate policies point to an unlivable future. Scientists are increasingly convinced that if warming rises above 1.5 degrees, cascading ecological and meteorological tipping points could threaten the stability of human civilization. The current level of action, if sustained, would result in global warming of about 3.3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and surpass 1.5 degrees as soon as 2030.
The frightening new milestone came amid an onslaught of extreme weather in July that, in some cases, inflicted permanent changes to the environment:
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