The Heat Is On: Climate Change and a Warming Planet

By Peter Aronson

If you plug “extreme weather and global warming” or “Has extreme weather increased?” into a search engine, you will get more hits than you can read.

May I suggest this simple, right-to-the-point, 30-second video on youtube from ScieneMoms.com.

It shows the Schneider family camping spot going up in flames, the Polidore’s favorite amusement park inundated with flood water and the Pointon’s summer swimming hole going from luscious and inviting to a dry-as-a-bone, scorched-earth scene out of a Mad Max movie.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report (released in 2021), the most authoritative report on climate change, scientists have concluded that our warming earth, caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions, has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. 

In other words, the greenhouse gasses that we all emit into the air by driving our gas-powered cars, flying to vacations, using non-renewable energy in our homes, etc., etc., is warming the air and water around us and propelling us to the hottest temperatures in recorded history (2024 is shaping up to be the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023), increasing droughts, increasing extreme precipitation and the number of hurricanes (causing increased flooding), and increasing the number of wildfires.

The June 2024 Global Climate Report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is not that much different from the report for May and probably won’t be much different than the report for July. That’s because every month for the past 13 months the report has started with these words: This past month’s “global surface temperature ranked warmest since global records began in 1850, making it the 13th consecutive record-warm month.”

The June report goes on to add the following:

Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean just experienced its warmest six months in recorded history; Europe clocked in with its second warmest period, while North America had its fourth warmest on record.

The June 2024 report also details the heavy rains in El Salvador and neighboring countries that caused flooding and landslides leading to displacement and more than a dozen deaths; more than 2,500 wildfires in central South America, the most ever seen so early in the year; heavy rain in South Africa causing at least 12 deaths; monsoon rain in Bangladesh, impacting more than two million people; deadly floods in southeastern China, with dozens of reported deaths; extreme heat in Greece; and Hurricane Beryl, the first reported category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic in the month of June.

And this all came before more recent news: that July 22, 2024, was the hottest day in recorded human history, surpassing even July 21 and July 23, 2024, which both were hotter than the previous hottest day on record in July 2023; and on July 30, at least 167 people were killed in monsoon landslides in India. 

“These record-breaking temperatures are part of a long-term warming trend driven by human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gasses,” said NASA in releasing its monthly data. Added NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, “In a year that has been the hottest on record to date, these past two weeks have been particularly brutal.”

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (CCES) provides a color-coded temperature map of the lower 48 U.S. states for the period 2036-2065, projecting that most of the country will experience many more days a year of extreme hot temperatures (over 90), predicting that most of the country will experience 30 to 70 days of such heat, compared with the period 1976-2005. Particularly hard hit areas are projected to be the Southeast to and including Florida, the Midwest south to and including Texas, and the Southwest, then continuing west to include Nevada and much of California. 

“Across the globe, hot days are getting hotter and more frequent, while we’re experiencing fewer cold days,” the CCES article states. “Over the past decade, daily record high temperatures have occurred twice as often as record lows across the continental United States, up from a near 1:1 ratio in the 1950s.”

Crucial to all this information is that for the 15th straight month, the NOAA reports, global surface ocean temperature was at an all-time monthly high. 

This is important because warmer ocean waters have widespread negative impacts, from severely impacting marine life and increasing sea level rise (and resulting in the loss of land and increased flooding) to altering weather patterns around the world and leading to more extreme weather.

“Rising ocean temperatures are driving unprecedented changes in global marine ecosystems, sea levels, and weather patterns,” the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reports. “As heat transforms the ocean, threats to food supplies, economies, and weather multiply, putting human and environmental health at risk.”

It’s important to remember that oceans cover more than 70 percent of earth’s surface. These warmer oceans impact extreme weather in many ways. 

WHOI explains: warmer water provides energy for hurricanes and cyclones, increasing their frequency and severity; and oceans impact global weather patterns because warmer water increases evaporation and the additional moisture in the air increases precipitation, ie more rainstorms and more blizzards. This can also lead to more droughts.

“While wetter areas will experience more precipitation,” the WHOI reports, “dry regions of the world will likely become drier due to the changes ocean warming causes to the water cycle. These arid conditions will cause areas like the southwestern United States to experience prolonged droughts and increased wildfire risks.”

And there may even be a link “between warming Arctic waters and the polar vortex—icy blasts of cold air—over the United States and Europe,” the WHOI says. “Scientists are examining whether the lack of sea ice due to warmer ocean temperatures weakens the jet stream, which usually keeps Arctic air in check and enables that air to plunge south instead.”

And let’s not forget the economic impact of our increasingly extreme weather. 

“The National Climate Assessment finds that the number of heat waves, heavy downpours and major hurricanes has increased in the United States, and the strength of these events has increased, too,” reports CCES. “A measure of the economic impact of extreme weather is the increasing number of billion-dollar disasters.”  

According to CCES, that number rose to 28 in 2023, from 21 in 2020, 19 in 2021 and 17 in 2022.

For more info on the extreme weather caused by global warming, see: 

The Week, which charts extreme global weather events from June 2023 to June 2024; and the Environmental Protection Agency, which provides a scientific breakdown on the increased extreme weather in the U.S. over the past few decades.  

Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.