Web Desk
July 2021 has been the hottest month ever recorded, according to new global data released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information. This comes on the heels of a report by the Inter Government Panel on Climate Change that added incontrovertible evidence that human activity such as burning fossil fuels has exacerbated adverse climate change.
According to NOAA climatologist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo, the last seven Julys from 2015 to 2021 have been the hottest in the 142 years of record keeping. Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator, said that the new record only adds to a disturbing trend that climate change has set for the world.
“July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded. This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe,” said Spinrad.
This year’s average July temperature recorded by NOAA was 16.73 degrees Celcius (62.07 degrees Fahrenheit). Although this only exceeds the previous record in 2016 by 0.01 degrees Celcius, such a rise is cause for alarm. Based on the Paris agreement, the world wants to keep global warming temperature increases “well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.” However, due to limited action from policymakers, global temperatures have continued to rise and set new records.
There have been marginal variances between the data released by NOAA and that recorded by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, but scientists say this variance between agencies is normal. According to Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2021 is the third hottest year in history.
“Regardless of exactly where it ends up on the leaderboards, the warmth the world is experiencing this summer is a clear impact of climate change,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute. “The extreme events we are seeing worldwide — from record-shattering heat waves to extreme rainfall to raging wildfires — are all long-predicted and well understood impacts of a warmer world. They will continue to get more severe until the world cuts its emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases down to net-zero.”
