Climate change's impacts not future's worry; it's today's

By Mark Gongloff / Bloomberg Opinion

For decades, global warming was widely seen as a tomorrow problem, something for our hapless grandchildren to worry about. But with heat records tumbling relentlessly, it’s becoming clear that tomorrow has basically arrived. We are the hapless grandchildren. And it’s also becoming clear that we’re not ready for the heat.

July 22 was the hottest day in recorded history, with the average global temperature hitting 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 F), according to the E.U.’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. That smashed the previous record set way back on, uh, July 21.

Before July 21, the previous record was set in July 2023. In fact, the past 10 years have had the 10 highest annual maximum temperatures on record, according to Copernicus data going back to 1940. The highs of the past two years shifted into a new gear, crossing 17 degrees C for the first time. Last year, we could chalk some of that heat up to the El Niño weather pattern, which tends to raise global temperatures. But El Niño has ended, and the mercury is still alarmingly high.

These are also probably the highest highs in roughly 125,000 years. As climate-change deniers never tire of pointing out, the climate has always been changing. That hot period 5,000 generations ago — when temperatures might have maxed out at 1.5 degress C above preindustrial averages, roughly matching this past scorching year — was followed by a long ice age. After that, the planet naturally warmed to the pleasant temperatures in which human civilization thrived for about 240 generations, a golden age of agriculture, air conditioning and Stanley cups.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-climate-changes-impacts-not-futures-worry-its-todays/