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In 2002, Nelly ushered a prophecy: “It’s getting hot in herre.” In 1999, Smash Mouth warned, “My world’s on fire, how about yours?”, a rhetorical question that only makes sense if you assume one of the people in the conversation does not inhabit the same world as the other person and is, therefore, an alien from another planet. And in 1987, R.E.M. knew what the future would hold when they ominously said, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
As it turns out, Nelly, Smash Mouth, and R.E.M. were all right — it is getting hot in her(r)e. So hot, that June 2019 was the hottest June on record. Ever.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, an agency that provides and analyzes climate data for the European Union, issued a new report on Tuesday, July 2, which confirmed temperatures in Europe were hotter than average by over 2°C (or approximately 3.6 °F) in comparison to past Junes; globally, temperatures were 0.10°C (or 0.18°F) higher than average this June, CNN added, and climate scientists say that our entire globe is about 1°C hotter today than it was two centuries ago.
“Although it is difficult to directly attribute this heat wave to climate change, such extreme weather events are expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm under increasing greenhouse gas concentrations,” the report notes.
Data for temperatures in the U.S. has yet to be analyzed, but if you’re looking to chart trends, the federal government likely isn’t your best bet. For months, the Trump administration has sought to remove all mentions of “climate change” from official government websites, and a webpage set up to explain temperatures for Independence Day simply argues that “heat is the key characteristic of America’s July climate.” (According to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information, July is the “hottest month of the year for the contiguous United States,” along with being an active month for natural disasters like hurricanes, which climate scientists say will intensify as the climate crisis rages on.)
But weather forecasters have warned of a heatwave hitting large swaths of the country this week after a record-making heatwave on the west coast caused thousands of mussels to literally cook and die.
“Most of us know that this is going to affect us in our lifetimes – it’s not just something that might happen in the future,” climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg told Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a conversation published by The Guardian last week. “It’s already here and it’s going to get worse, and many of us understand that this is going to make our lives much worse.”
But Greta, who rose to global recognition because she began skipping school to protest the government in her native Sweden, also pointed out: “As young people, we aren’t as used to the system. We don’t say, ‘It’s always been like this, we can’t change anything.'”
The Democratic National Committee is currently debating whether to dedicate one of their 12 scheduled primary debates to climate change after mainly youth activists pressured them to do so. The organization had previously said it would not host a debate for the issue specifically, and when the subject came up during the first debate, candidates served up weak answers. Several Democratic candidates have issued comprehensive climate-change policy proposals; almost all of those running for the nomination support the Green New Deal in some form.
