the DON JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 7/24/23... 15,024.26 7/17/23... 15,000.59
	6/27/13… 15,000.00
(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 7/24/23... 35,227.69; 7/17/23... 34,609.33; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for July 24, 2023 – “HOT, HOTTER, TORRID!”

Phoenix, Arizona set a new local, state, American and... for all we know... global record on Thursday as the temperature exceeded 110° F. for the twentieth straight day... which streak continued through today and seems to endure well into August.

The record days continued to slightly outnumber confirmed heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, which stood at eighteen this morning.

Further, “(t)here were 69 other deaths also under investigation by officials that could potentially cause the number to balloon even further,” Arizona Central/Republic reporter Fernando Cervantes Jr. tallied up the toll.

According to a weekly report published by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, out of the 18 deaths this year, 13 were caused by heat while five were related. By the same time last year, 29 deaths were already confirmed and 193 were under investigation by the county. (Attachment One)

So, in a perverse manner, things are actually better this year than last. Temperatures may be up, up, up but fatalities have actually gone down.

Perhaps the reduction is a consequence of experience... people who nearly died last year or had friends or relatives who did learned their lessons about survival in what residents call “the Valley of the Sun”... don’t ape the mad dogs or Englishmen who go out in the midday hours, stay at home and crank up the air conditioning and drink plenty of water to hydrate.

That is, of course, if you have access to water. Or air conditioning, or a home. “About one-third of the confirmed deaths were unhoused people. One-third of the deaths were of people 75 years or older,” according to the Central.

“Lack of air conditioning led to at least three indoor deaths. Hospital visits related to heat-related illnesses have increased as the summer progresses and temperatures increase.”

Deaths related to the AZ heat rose to 18 this year, but so far lag behind last year’s figures, confirmed Fox News.

While Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, confirmed 18 heat-related deaths this year, the region recorded 29 deaths by this time last year, but “scorching” temperatures in the Arizona city have hit 110 degrees for 20 straight days, breaking heat wave records among big U.S. cities. (July 20, 2023 10:48am EDT, Attachment Two)

David Hondula, direct of heat response and mitigation for the City of Phoenix, noted last week that heat deaths seemed to be lagging this year but warned against drawing any conclusions this early in the season.

The majority of this year's heat-associated deaths have been outside, with just four reported indoors. Three of the inside deaths involved broken air conditioners and the fourth involved a cooling system that was not turned on.

“Because of past deaths due to power shutoffs, Arizona utilities have adopted rules not to turn off power during excessive heat warnings like the current one declared by the National Weather Service,” Fox reported.

So far, the power grid... though somewhat strained... is coping with the demand.

This year's suspected heat-associated deaths have included a 73-year-man who got a flat tire Sunday when he was bicycling in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye. He told his family that he would walk to a nearby fire station for help but died before he could get there.

The local Fox network TV station weathercasters – including Nicole Garcia, Brian Webb and the FOX 10 Staff – also reported that Phoenix Sky Harbor reached a low of 97 degrees on Wednesday, “making it the highest low temperature ever recorded in the city - and it set a new daily high of 119 degrees just a few hours later.” (Attachment Three) The previous record of 118ºF was set on Tuesday.

The previous record high set on this date was 116 degrees, which was set back in 1989.

The city also broke the all-time record low of 96 degrees that was set back in 2003.

Among the most miserable solarbabies in the Valley of the Sun... in addition to the homeless, the elderly and peope with pre-existing medical conditions... were the outside workers in agriculture, utility maintenance and public services.

No matter how intolerable the hot temperatures may feel, airport workers with duties on the tarmac (where temperatures on the ground can be around 20°F higher than the outdoor temperature still) have to make sure that planes are safe, loaded, and serviced for travel.

"You've got the sun from above, you got the heat coming off the concrete, it's hard to explain it if you've never experienced it," said Amy George with Gateway Aviation Services.

Not all outdoor workers have to constantly deal with the extreme heat, however, as ice delivery workers can get some measure of relief from the heat during the course of their day – having a job that is “quite cool, in more ways than one,” FOX 10's Brian Webb reported.

"It’s good. It’s just a high demand," said Matthew Ramirez – one of dozens of drivers for a company called AZ Iceman who make deliveries 24/7. Ramirez makes about a dozen deliveries a day.

"Everybody wants ice right now.”

Further east, in Houston, Texas... where the heat is far from dry and last week’s Index reported on the death of an outside worker from heatstroke... there were only three heat-related deaths as of a week ago – the most recent being that of William Toomey, 89, who died last Friday after he was found unresponsive on a sidewalk near his apartment complex in Webster, located southeast of the Houston metro area. (Houston Chronicle, July 20, 2023, Attachment Four)

Last Index, we reported on the death of Victor Ramas, who died in his home that lacked air conditioning (Guardian UK, Attachment Five see also here) as well as the demise of a construction worker in nearby Pearland after Texas governor Greg Abbott approved a law in June that eliminated water breaks for construction workers mandated by cities and counties in the state.

News of Toomey's death came as authorities were also investigating the death of a Dallas mailman who perished after collapsing in the middle of his daily route amid 115 degree heat index values earlier in June.

Elsewhere, a fortnight ago, CNN cited Chief Meteorologist and Director of Climate Matters, Bernadette Woods Placky, who said: “Earth is screaming at us right now and people need to listen. It should be a wake-up call or an urgency to people that this is just not normal.”

Climatologists were already pointing to a “massive coast-to-coast heat dome sprawled over the western and southern United States,” potentiated by El Nino and... yes... human-caused climate change. The torrid zone now stretches across the southern two thirds of the United States and also impacts Europe, from Greece to Belgium, and China.

“Yes, it’s summer,” CNN informed even its least-infomed viewers. “Yes, these places are supposed to get hot. But not this hot and for this long.” (July 10^th, Attachment Six)

“Dangerous heat will result in a major to extreme risk for heat-related illnesses for much of the population, especially those who are heat sensitive and those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” the Washington Post reported on a contention of the National Weather Service in Hanford, Calif. (July 13^th, Attachment Seven)

Phoenix, arguably the most heat-prone city in America according to the Post, established a record warm nighttime low of 94 degrees Wednesday and is poised to set numerous additional records. Natives are prone to scoffing that the Arizona heat is “a dry heat” but, contended Matthew Cappucci of the Post (in his first of three Attachments to this Lesson), it’s worth noting that dry heat is dangerous “because, in a dry atmosphere, moisture immediately evaporates off a person’s skin. That means they may not notice they’re sweating and becoming hydrated until it’s too late. Air masses like these quickly desiccate everything around them.”

On the other hand, the Southeast has experienced, is experiencing and will further experience extreme humidity, with dew points in the 70s, spreading over most of the region. That means, Cappucci pointed out, that “every cubic meter of air will be holding roughly half a shot glass’s worth of moisture. The atmosphere, which will be closer to saturation, won’t be able to evaporate sweat off a person’s skin and allow evaporative cooling to regulate body temperature. As a result, heat stress will grow, and heat indexes of 105 to 112 degrees will be widespread. A few locations will feel like 115 degrees or worse.

And he predicts it will get worse, and it has.

Europe is also in the “early stages” of a dangerous heat wave. WaPo reported, citing excessively high temperatures forecast from Portugal and Spain through southern Italy and as far east as Romania and Bulgaria on Thursday and Friday.

“In Sicily and Sardinia, temperatures could approach 118 degrees (48 Celsius), challenging the highest levels ever observed in Europe, according to the European Space Agency. The heat will expand into Central Europe, including Germany and Poland, over the weekend and may linger over southern Europe for much of next week.

Amidst the sweaty suffering, it’s comforting... perhaps?... to know that some of the usual mediots are rassling over language like disturbed children. The scuffle that this heat wave spurred a language wave, cresting as proponants and detractors engage in... dare we say it... heated debate is the vague and vogue-y concept of the “new normal”.

Catherine Boudreau of the Business Insider wrote that the phrase “characterized by more frequent and intense disasters” makes her itch and squirm (July 17^th Attachment Eight), so she also recorded the dissent by Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, who said that the phrase suggests “the frequency and intensity of these disasters will stabilize.

"We're not on a plateau," Leiserowitz, insisted. "We're on a roller coaster. This is the new abnormal. And it's getting worse."

The way the media and politicians frame these events is important because most people around the world still don't connect their own run-ins with disasters to the climate crisis, Leiserowitz said. People also tend to gradually normalize change, in what psychologists call "shifting baselines."

The climate crisis remains psychologically distant for many people. They think it will affect "polar bears or maybe developing countries but not the United States, not my state, not my community, not my friends, not my family, not me," Leiserowitz added.

And this has consequences for the institutions with the most power to combat the climate emergency: national governments and corporations, which, the Insider insisted, “reflect the people who run them.” These institutions haven't acted fast enough to avert the crisis, climate scientists say, and the delay isn't solely attributed to human psychology. “Politics and profits also play a role.”

They do, and so do many other facets in the warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date data for 2023 – which is “entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago.” The Guardian UK (July 17^th, Attachment Eight) unrolled an anthology of squibs and squiblets... takeaways and a timeline that rolls round and round the world, back and forth in time, and spews back dispatches from Athens to Arizona, Belgium to Beijing (where Typhoon Talim became the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year, hitting the country on Monday evening local time and prompting authorities to issue flood warnings, cancel flights and trains, and order people to stay at home) and California to the Canary Islands.

Addressing those who “doomscroll” on whatever social media platform you prefer these days, a different pair of GUKsters Michael Mann and Susan Joy Hassol, said that you might see “selective images and graphs that would lead you to think Earth’s climate is spinning out of control, in a runaway feedback loop of irreversible tipping points leading us down an inescapable planetary death spiral.”

But that’s not what’s happening. (July 19^th, Attachment Ten)

“The average warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date measurements for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago would happen if we continued with the business-as-usual burning of fossil fuels. Yes, there are alarming data coming in, from record-shattering loss of winter sea ice in the southern hemisphere to off-the-charts warmth in the North Atlantic with hot tub-grade waters off the Florida coast. We’ve also seen the hottest week on record for the planet as a whole this month. We can attribute blame to a combination of ongoing human-caused warming, an incipient major El Niño event and the vagaries of natural variability.

“These episodes are a reminder that we can not only expect to see records broken, but shattered, if we continue burning fossil fuels and heating up the planet.”

The incessant parade of heat domes, floods and tornado outbreaks this summer “seems to suggest a precarious if not downright apocalyptic “new abnormal” that we now find ourselves in.”

What remains to be seen is just how bad we’re willing to let it get. “A window of opportunity remains for averting a catastrophic 1.5C/2.7F warming of the planet, beyond which we’ll see far worse consequences than anything we’ve seen so far. But that window is closing and we’re not making enough progress.”

Hopefully, Tea, Jones is notl as stupid as 71 year old Stephen Curry of Los Angeles, one of the so-called “heat tourists” who chose to take a hike through the remote Golden Canyon trail... in the Furnace Creek of Death Valley during the heat of the day on Tuesday. (New York Daily News, July 20^th, Attachment Eleven)

That’s Death Valley!

“Heat may have been a factor in his death,” the National Parks Service cautiously opined, but the afternoon high recorded at Furnace Creek was 121 degrees and “Actual temperatures inside Golden Canyon were likely much higher, due to canyon walls radiating the sun’s heat,” the release states.

Just hours before he died, Curry spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the weather in the park.

“It’s a dry heat,” he said at Zabriskie Point, about 2 miles from the trailhead (and also the title of a famous movie by the intellectual Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni back in the day when patrons flocked to foreign and foreign-ish films – which they may have to do again later this year).

Florida, on the other hand, is seeing its warmest, wettest year on record, with temperatures running 3 to 5 degrees above normal and the “wet heat” is becoming “sweat heat.” Hot ocean water is killing off marine life, and providing fertile “ground” for the coming hurricane season; researchers contend that the oceans have been warming so rapidly, that CBS (Attachment Twelve) compares the warmup dissipatess an amount equal to the energy of five atomic bombs detonating underwater "every second for 24 hours a day for the entire year."

Much of Florida is seeing its warmest year on record, with temperatures running 3 to 5 degrees above normal. While some locations have been setting records since the beginning of the year, the hottest weather has come with an intense heat dome cooking the Sunshine State in recent weeks. That heat dome has made coastal waters extremely warm, including “downright shocking” temperatures of 92 to 96 degrees in the Florida Keys. (WashPost, Attachment Thirteen)

The toasty waters are influencing temperatures on land by raising the humidity, which makes it harder for temperatures to cool off at night.

What to do? “Understand the science,” says the Post.

Greenery makes a big difference in how a person fares during extreme heat. Shade can make temperatures feel up to 30 degrees cooler, according to Lora Martens, urban tree program manager for the Phoenix office of heat response and mitigation interviewed by GUK in last week’s Lesson. She is leading the effort to spread the shade to more exposed areas of the city, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“The parts of our city that need trees the most are the hardest places to plant them,” she said.

The first step for many cities, Hunter Jones, program manager of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told Time in last week’s Lesson, is planting trees and establishing parks wherever possible. Reflective rooftops can reduce the amount of heat buildings absorb during the day. And coating concrete and asphalt surfaces with titanium dioxide—(a/k/a white paint... which material is also found in sunscreen—can help keep their temperature down.

“There are a variety of other coatings too that have been developed that can reflect a lot of that [solar] energy,” says Jones. In some cases, merely painting streets a reflective shade of gray can help as well.

That’s if you have a roof to paint. Fifty-six percent of those who succumbed to the heat last year in Maricopa county, where Phoenix is located, were unhoused according to the GUK in last week’s Lesson, and many of those who had homes had faulty air conditioning or none at all.

Agricultural workers, landscapers and construction crews are trying to adapt, where their bosses will let them. “You have to drink water,” a Whole Foods landscaper advises, “but if you drink too much, sometimes you throw up.” (July 14^th, Attachment Fourteen)

Leaving the country, however, is not an option. Even Canada is seeing heat (and a little human carelessness) causing the wildfires that have blanketed North America with smoky smoke and high-altitude glaciers in Greenland, the Himalays and Swiss Alps are starting to melt.

In Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, records were broken in Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain, the European Union's earth observation service, Copernicus, said last week. The service's satellite imagery showed some areas of Spain with land surface temperatures, which measure the temperature of soil, exceeding 60 degrees Celsius – 140 degrees Fahrenheit. (CBS, JULY 19, 2023, Attachment Eight) Temperatures in Cyprus are expected to remain above 104 degrees Fahrenheit through indefinitely, Italy has also been told to prepare for "the most intense heat wave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time," and, just yesterday morning 2,000 tourists (including Americans) were evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes, much of which is being claimed by fire – evacuees rising to 15,000 by this morning.

Hephaestus is angry.

There, the government has reduced access or entirely closed many ancient Roman monuments while, in the countryside, farmers are battling frost, floods, heat and hail in what Reuters calls an “epic year”. (Attachment Nine, July 20^th)

They interviewed Andrea Ferrini, whose fruit and corn crops in northern Italy withered in a hard April frost, then were hit by torrential rains and record flooding, followed by an exceptional heatwave and finally hail storms.

"It has certainly been a disastrous year," said Ferrini. "Making money from my farm is becoming difficult with this changing climate. Even planning for future years is becoming really challenging."

A day earlier, other Reuters investigators found that industry was in just as bad shape as farming... carmaker Stellantis (STLAM.MI) said it was monitoring the situation at its Pomigliano plant near Naples on Wednesday, after temporarily halting work on one production line the day before when temperatures peaked.

Workers at battery-maker Magneti Marelli threatened an 8-hour strike at their central Italian plant in Sulmona. A joint statement by the unions said "asphyxiating heat is putting at risk the lives of workers". (July 19^th, Attachment Nine)

In Asia, Europe and the United States, records are shattering, and forecasters say there’s no respite in sight.

Power plants are churning across the United States and China, the world’s leading emitters of greenhouse gases, struggling to meet air-conditioning demand. Wildfires are raging in Southern Europe and Canada, with more than a month of peak fire season left. Explosive thunderstorms, torrential monsoons and extreme heat are sowing destruction and threatening lives across three continents.

And there is little relief in sight, from the mountains and megacities of Asia to the lakes and rivers of Europe or the plains, forests and suburbs of North America. In the short-term, meteorologists predicted more intense heat and extreme weather over the next month.

In the long-term, scientists say, climate change is making heat waves hotter, more frequent and longer; making wildfires bigger and more intense; affecting air quality, rainfall, and droughts — reaching every corner of Earth, driven by the burning of fossil fuels by humans.

“The hard part isn’t over,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece said on Thursday. In his country, wildfires have burned scores of homes and thousands of acres of forestland over the last week, and temperatures are forecast to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit, or 45 Celsius, on Sunday in the central region of Thessaly.

A fire service spokesman, Ioannis Artopios, said that the intensely dry heat was creating “even more difficult” conditions for Greek firefighters. Similarly parched conditions have fueled the record fire season in Canada, where more than 25 million acres have burned so far this year.

Given the expectation that the heat will persist, parts of Southern Europe are bracing for the next wave even as the temperatures have ebbed — albeit just slightly — over the past couple of days.

Italian hospitals have reported a rise in heat-related emergencies as temperatures crept toward 100 Fahrenheit, or 38 Celsius. Unions, government officials and businesspeople met to discuss how to protect workers from the heat, which is creating dangerous conditions on construction sites, tarmacs, and city streets. One business leader compared the heat’s impact on workers to the Covid-19 pandemic and called for “extraordinary measures” in response.

In Spain, the authorities officially declared an end to the heat emergency on Thursday. But the nation’s weather monitor warned people not to “lower our guard,” given that the risk of wildfires in the hot, dry conditions remains high in much of the country.

Across Europe, the searing temperatures have taken a particular toll on older people, with southern European nations being joined by others as far north as Belgium in putting heat-relief plans in place, many aimed at safeguarding older populations.

The Far-Reaching Effects of Extreme Heat

·  China’s Addiction to Coal: While pledging to reduce carbon emissions, China is greatly increasing its use of coal to generate electricity for air-conditioning during heat waves.

· Traveling to Europe: The top tourist destinations of Italy, Spain and Greece are sweltering this summer. Travelers can take precautionary measures to protect themselves.

· Historic Heat: Phoenix is trying to adapt to a new reality of chronic extreme heat. Its chief heat officer told The Daily how the city is adjusting to it.

· A Vulnerable Population: The dangerous heat sweeping across the United States and Europe has posed particular perils for older adults. Here is how they can stay safe.

Extreme heat can be dangerous for anyone, but older people and outdoor workers are at particular risk. Summer heat waves in Europe last year may have killed 61,000 people across the continent, according to a recent study.

Some health officials around the world have started to link deaths to extreme heat this year. Heat and humidity have been particularly devastating in northern Mexico, where more than 100 people died of heat-related causes this yearthe region, according to reports from the federal health ministry.

In Asia, the extremely high temperatures have been compounded by an intense monsoon season that has already taken more than 100 lives in India, South Korea and Japan, with the full death toll likely to be considerably higher.

Severe rainfall has replaced the intense heat in India in recent weeks, particularly in the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The intense downpours have caused massive landslides and flash floods, killing at least 130 people in the past 26 days in northern India.

An April report by India’s government foreshadowed such an outcome, warning that “with unchecked global warming, the probability of compound extremes such as the simultaneous occurrence of droughts and heat waves is also likely to increase.” Droughts can make flash floods more likely because soil becomes less absorbent.

Heat waves in India normally occur before the monsoon season, from March to June. But this year, temperatures have remained extremely high for far longer, reflecting a steady warming trend in recent years. While a temperature of 91 degrees or more was recorded, on average, 70 days a year between 1961 and 1990, between 1991 to 2022 there were an average of 89 days hitting that mark.

Another heat wave continued to bake much of China on Friday, shattering records across the country.

The far western region of Xinjiang has been particularly hard hit. Temperatures on Sunday at a remote desert township hit 126 degrees (52 Celsius), reportedly breaking the record for the highest temperature in China. Parts of Xinjiang were expected to keep seeing three-digit temperatures, according to official media, and the authorities said they were on alert for potential wildfires.

Late July is historically the hottest time of year in southern China, and officials there warned that high humidity would make temperatures feel almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the actual measurements.

China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, started its dry season on Thursday, the earliest since record-keeping began in the 1950s, according to the authorities in Jiangxi Province.

And in northern China, several cities, including Beijing, have broken records for the most days in a year above 95 degrees, although rainstorms that began Thursday night were expected to finally bring some relief.

But the storms brought their own concerns, as officials warned of potential flash floods around the capital. Two years ago, the city of Zhengzhou, in central China, recorded what state media said was the most rainfall on record ever to fall in a single hour in the country. The downpours killed at least 300 people.

Chinese power stations have recently their own broken records for generating electricity — burning more coal, an important contributor to global warming, to meet energy air-conditioning demand — and Chinese leaders rebuffed a U.S. overture this week to commit to tougher climate action.

There was similar demand for electricity in the United States, where more than a quarter of the population experienced dangerous heat on Thursday, according to a New York Times analysis of daily weather and population data.

Late Thursday, the operator of California’s power grid issued an emergency alert urging people to conserve electricity as high temperatures strained the system. In Phoenix, the temperature hit 116 degrees on Thursday, extending the city’s record streak to 21 straight days with temperatures of 110 degrees or higher.

Severe storms, particularly in the southeastern United States, have further battered the energy grid. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power as strong thunderstorms knocked out power lines on Thursday, leaving 150,000 homes without electricity in Georgia, and in western Tennessee, and causing blackouts in 52,000 homes and businesses.

Forecasters said the current heat wave was expected to last through the weekend in the Deep South and Southeast and into next week for the Southwest. Nearly 80 million Americans are expected to face temperatures above 105 in the next few days, the National Weather Service said.

Another U.S. agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicted unusually high temperatures in most of the country next month, almost everywhere except the northern Great Plains. On Thursday, NOAA reported that last month was the planet’s warmest June since global temperature record-keeping began in 1850.

Don Jones might think record rainfall would ease the climate crisis in India, but the counry was inundated – flash floods and landslides proliferated and New Delhi’s Yamuna River spilled over its river banks this week as its water level hit a 45-year high on Thursday at 684 feet, lapping at the walls of the Taj Mahal. The previous record of 681 feet was hit in 1978.

And in China, which was hosting U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for talks, tourists defied the heat to visit a giant thermometer showing surface temperatures of 80 Celsius (176 Fahrenheit).

Beijing set a new record as temperatures remained above 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) for the 28th day in a row, Kerry expressed hope that cooperation to combat global warming could redefine troubled ties between the two superpowers, both among the top polluters. (Reuters, above)

Fourteen deaths occurred in an underpass in the city of Cheongju, South Korea, where more than a dozen vehicles were submerged on Saturday when a river levee collapsed. In the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, 22 people died, many from landslides and swirling torrents. Further tribulations were reported in Pakistan, Iraq.

After a record high of 52.2 degrees Celsius (126 Fahrenheit) was recorded Sunday in a small township in the Turpan Depression, a stretch of desert in the northwest that sinks as low as 150 meters below sea level while, the opposite end of the country, southeastern Guangxi province issued a red alert for flooding and landslides on Tuesday as Typhoon Talim made its way inland, Kerry told Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng on Wednesday that climate change must be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues... pollution and the resultant climate change being “a universal threat to everybody on the planet”, but a trio of WashPost reporters... daring the heat and the Communists... quoted an angry Chinese leader Xi Jinping refuting Kerry and declaring in remarks reported Wednesday that Beijing alone will decide how — and how quickly — it addresses climate change. (July 19^th, Attachment Ten)

China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, and approved the construction of dozens of coal plants last year even as it added more renewable power. Ripping up the the 2015 Paris climate accord... where a Chinese-U.S. agreement paved the way for the international goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels... Beijing made it clear that domestic concerns would shape its approach to energy.

“China will decide its own path in achieving carbon goals and will not be ordered about by others,” said Li Shuo, a senior policy adviser for Greenpeace East Asia.

After last summer’s — also record-breaking — heat wave dried up reservoirs and caused power shortages from idled hydropower stations, the government has turned to coal to ensure the same doesn’t happen this year. Local authorities approved more coal power plants in 2022 than in any year since 2015.

To keep the air conditioning on, providers like CHN Energy, one of the world’s largest generators of coal-fired power, have been setting daily records for supply, the Global Times, a state-run newspaper, reported on Monday.

The United States was ignoring circumstances, as well as “China’s contributions and achievements in reducing emissions and blindly pressur(ing) China to make unrealistic commitments,” Chen Ying, a researcher at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, snarled in an interview with local media.

Wednesday, a submissive and humiliated Kerry described his talks with Chinese officials as “very cordial, very direct, and, I think, very productive,” but he acknowledged that they did not produce a significant breakthrough.

So, what about those health concerns?

The human body is remarkably resilient to heat, but the combination of heat and humidity (called the wet bulb temperature) can make it harder — or impossible — to cool down. A separate WashPost infomercial delineated what extreme heat does to the body, and how some parts of the world could become too hot for humans to survive.

Time (Tuesday, July 18^th, Attachment Eleven) differentiated (in order of severity) “heat stress”, “heat exhaustion”, and “heat stroke.”

Heat Stress

Heat Stress is a catch-all phrase that generally refers to any negative outcomes from doing activity in the heat. Symptoms, from heat rash to cramps, dizzy spells, and fainting, are early warning signs that the body’s self-cooling mechanism is overwhelmed. If unaddressed, heat stress can lead to more severe consequences, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Heat Exhaustion

When the body has lost too much water and electrolytes due to excessive sweating, heat exhaustion can set in. Symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, fainting, slurred speech, physical weakness, a bad headache, irritability, clammy skin, and an elevated body temperature. Repeated incidents of heat exhaustion can also lead to organ damage, particularly for the kidneys. Severe heat exhaustion can bring on rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissues that can cause irregular heart rhythms, seizures, and acute kidney damage.

Heat Stroke

Heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness. It is triggered when the body is no longer capable of temperature regulation, and the core body temperature exceeds 104°F. The body will stop sweating as basic functions shut down, and core temperature can go as high as 108°F within 10-15 minutes. Other symptoms can include a loss of consciousness, seizures, or delirium. If the victim doesn’t receive immediate medical attention, which can include a cold IV drip, permanent disability or death is likely to come within a few hours.

Wednesday’s Time (Attachment Twelve) offered a few recommendations on “How to Keep Your Home (if you have one) Cool in Extreme Heat”. They consulted “experts”, who recommended...

Block out sunlight

“What you want to do is stop the heat before it gets through the glass or any other wall,” David Wright, a solar environmental architect, says. “You can use outside shading techniques or shades that go up and down and block sunlight at certain times of the day, or horizontal shading devices like arbors, trellises, and awnings.” Any sort of plant life that can absorb sunlight before it hits a wall is helpful, he adds.

Use the nighttime to your advantage

If you live in a house with thermal mass (meaning it’s made of brick or concrete and retains heat well), Wright says that you can try to cool your home at night without air conditioning. He suggests homeowners take note when the outside temperature drops below the interior temperature, and then open all the windows and doors that you can.

Of course, Wright mentions, this should only be done if safety is not a concern.

Know when a fan is efficient

Wright says that ceiling fans with large paddles, or Casablanca fans, are most helpful. “It pushes the heat up toward the ceiling and provides evaporative cooling around the body of the person,” Wright told TIME.

Know when to move to a cooling center

“When it’s extremely hot, spending time in locations with air conditioning, particularly during the hottest hours of the day, is going to be your best line,” said Claudia Brown, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If you do not have air conditioning in your home, we do recommend going to public places where there is air conditioning such as shopping malls, public libraries, or public health sponsored heat relief shelters (sometimes these are referred to as cooling centers). Gilbert adds that anytime there is a heat advisory or heat warning and you do not have air conditioning, you should move to a cooling center.

Time again... (July 18^th, Attachment Thirteen)... contacted the Phoenix office of the Humane Society on keeping household pets safe.

It used to be rare that a domestic animal would be killed by heat, according to Director of Field Operations Tracey Miiller, but in the two-and-a-half month period from May 1 to July 12 this year, her team has found seven, up from three in the same period last year. Most of these deaths aren’t pets that were mistreated intentionally, and the increase is a good reminder of how quickly something can go wrong.

Most pets, even indoor/outdoor cats, can easily be kept inside on hotter days. But for others—primarily dogs—that’s not an option. Though heat can be just as dangerous for dogs as humans, “I don’t know that people always recognize the signs of heat stress in dogs,” says Miiller.

“Dogs can easily become overheated within 10 minutes,” says Lauree Simmons, the founder and president of Big Dog Ranch rescue shelters in Florida and Alabama “...especially the short-nosed dogs, like boxers, bulldogs, and French bulldogs.” Early signs of heat exhaustion in dogs include redness around the eyes and darkening of the gums and tongue, often to a deep dark red or purple (gums that are too pale, however, can also be a sign of heat exhaustion). Excessive salivating or panting is another key sign.

Dogwalkers should understand that temperatures on concrete can reach levels that will burn the feet of dogs (or barefoot humans) and animal experts advise investing in booties to protect the pads of your dog’s paws. “Common sense should be able to tell you if the pavement is too hot,” says Joe Elmore, president and CEO of the Charleston Animal Society in South Carolina. Though it may sound silly, “if you take your shoes off and put your bare foot on the pavement, if it’s hot to you, it’s hot to the dog.”

Most importantly, Simmons and Miiller say, never ever leave animals other than livestock unattended outdoors or in a vehicle in the summer (or ever, ideally). “We recently had a gecko that died in the front seat of a U-Haul truck because of the heat,” Miiller says. When it’s hot out, “normally people just think of dogs and cats, but all animals, even reptiles who love the heat, can only take so much.”

And... as should be obvious... provide plenty of drinking water.

Birds, especially the fledglings, need human help too. The Liberty Wildlife shelter in Phoenix has been a frenzy of activity this month during the record-breaking run of extreme temperatures that’s been taxing for humans and wildlife alike. Gila woodpeckers. Barn owls. Harris’s hawks. Mourning doves. Shelter staff members say the warm months of late spring into summer are the busiest time of the year, when many baby birds are born and learning to fly. (Washington Post, Attachment Fourteen)

Executive director Megan Mosby calls this “orphan season,” the time when young birds are found on the ground for any number of reasons — stumbles, high winds, collisions with window or cars. But stretches of extreme heat can add further strain to these birds and force some to fall from their nests, staff members say.

“A lot of them will just bail out or the parents will go, ‘it’s too hot,’ and they throw them out,” said Lane Seyler, a former bird keeper at the Phoenix Zoo who now volunteers at Liberty Wildlife. “It didn’t used to be this hot here. With all the pavement, the building, it doesn’t go down at night anymore, and it used to. It’s just extreme heat.”

In the orphan care room, the cheeping from dozens of tiny beaks is insistent and unrelenting. This is where the babies come when they fall from their nests. Using tubes or tweezers, volunteers feed bits of crickets or meal worms, protein-infused nectar, or soaked cat food. Some need to be fed every 20 minutes.

“There’s so many of them,” Hackett said. “As soon as you think you’re done, the first one you fed is hungry again.”

Musings on animal welfare and evolution by Time’s Jeff Goodall in last week’s Lesson (July 6^th, http://donjonesindex.com/dji.230717.htm - meandered from ants to roadrunners; air, land and sea creatures, cold- to warm-blooded beasts of the realm. The former (a/k/a “ectotherms”) like dinosaurs and such were joined (and, in some cases, supplanted) by the latter around 260 million years ago, evolving into dogs and cats, wolves and tigers. Some animals evolved adaptative quirks... elephants’ flapping ears help with heat dissipation; kangaroos spit on their arms to wet them and cool off, and hippos (and hogs) wallow in mud. Goodall interviewed chimpanzee student Jill Pruetz, who told him that the chimps in Africa’s hottest savannas lurk close to water, nap frequently and love few things more than a good, cool cave.

Or, for the humans who have to work outdoors in hot, hot summers, compassionate bosses whose employees are equipped with proper clothing, as well as properly hydrated.

"Provide with skin coverings, arm sleeves, cooling towels. Try to keep everybody as covered as we can, along with being able to manage it while we're here," said Phoenix airport worker Amy George (Attachment Two “A”, above).

Savvy managers also increase hydration options and breaks, along with decreasing employees' heat exposure. (Then again, the Greg Abbotts of the world can taunt hot migrant children by holding water out of reach, or shredding them with razor wire.

Some might say that using applicable or “woke” language can also be a method of self-defense as opposed to an annoyance.

“New normal” denialist Catherine Boudreau (Business Insider, July 20^th, Attachment Fifteen) encourages hot people to admit and resist the uniqueness of the present citing Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, who warns that the phrase “suggests the frequency and intensity of these disasters will stabilize” and that people will adapt, or just die off.

“Still, the climate crisis remains psychologically distant for many people. They think it will affect "polar bears or maybe developing countries but not the United States, not my state, not my community, not my friends, not my family, not me," Leiserowitz said.

“This has consequences for the institutions with the most power to combat the climate emergency: national governments and corporations, which reflect the people who run them. These institutions haven't acted fast enough to avert the crisis, climate scientists say. The delay isn't solely attributed to human psychology. Politics and profits also play a role.”

Our previous lesson included a number of people making a number of statements to the effect that climate change is 1) the new normal, which must be adapted too, or 2) an inconvenient lie that obstructs their pursuit of profits. Or, for the politicians, pursuit of the donor class as funds their campaigns.

Climate denial’s a river in Egypt, too, and it’s hot

The institutions with the most power to combat the climate emergency: governments and corporations, which reflect the people who run them. These institutions haven't acted fast enough to avert the crisis, climate scientists say. The delay isn't solely attributed to human psychology. Politics and profits also play a role.

Big Oil claims to have answers, too, and so do Big Politicians. Tired Old Joe and deluded, living-in-the-past Trump don’t exactly say what they are, but they’re out there. Somewhere.

A concerned scientist wandered through New Hampshire, soliciting views from Republican Presidential candidates. She asked Vivek Ramaswamy to reconcile his description of himself as a scientist (while he does have a biology undergraduate degree, his career has been focused on finance) with his dismissive reference to a “climate cult”... Asa Hutchinson about his predecessor Mike Huckabee (he said he was “surprised”)... Nikki Haley (she says she understands climate change is real and caused by humans). Crickets.

Former congressman Bill Hurd of Texas said, “until more people think climate change is impacting them personally then we won’t see the political will necessary to do something about it.”

Candidates are stumping loudly in Iowa, one of only four states that turned down $3 million from the federal government to help the state create a climate action plan, a daffy decision according to this opinion in the Iowa Gazette.

There’s a Democratic primary too... tho’ you might not know it. RFK Jr., a once-upon-a-time environmentalist, now asserts that that “free markets are a much better way to stop pollution,” and advances the claim that climate change is “being used to control us through fear.” (New Republic, Attachment Twenty Six)

The longest riff on climate, pollusion and other... stuff... comes from the longest shot candidate. On June 20^th, Marianne Williamson endured a lengthy interview by the Heatmap.com people – gaining plaudits for “bold incremental change”, denied plotting to ban gas stoves and claims to have been converted to environmentalism after a hike in the wilderness in Montana.

“I think we need to declare an emergency,” she concluded. “I don’t say that lightly, by the way. And the powers of government should not be used like a bludgeon or meat cleaver. They should be used with appropriate nuance. Now, having said that, it has become clear to me that oil companies are not going to do this. The government, I believe, should act.”

But... if President Joe is weak and supports the polluting Willow Plan Williamson mentioned, and if the Republicans are well... crickets?... how about a third party? It’s been talked up, of late, and a potential candidate would be Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who has expressed bipartisan sentiments in some of this recent votes.

Bad idea, replies the Sierra Club (Attachment Twenty Eight), calling Manchin “the coal barons’ favorite coal baron.” They list a number of his failings, including a betrayal of his beloved coal miners (and their daughters) for refusing to support Biden’s “Build Back Better”, which was “which was popular in West Virginia (and) turned his own constituents against him, as well as coal miners themselves.”

And the media?

The “nonpartisans” (mostly weak to moderate liberals) contend with a few more doggedly Fifth Estaters... ranging from small, angry blogs to big, bloated donkeys and elephants... and, if it were a question of verbiage, the climate would behave itself rather than endure more assaults from the left (the Slaters, Huffposters, a dozen or so legacy magazines, a few newer ones... including the Guardian UK, always reliable to present the reliably liberal side of climate or other questions... and designated podcasters and opinionators on the mass market newspapers and journals) and the right (a smaller, but more determined contingent of right, hard right, alt-right and seldom right denialists) ranging downward in access and influence from Fox, the National Review (both of whom once loved, now spurn Mister Trump) and the more vital, viral and sometimes vicious Washington outlets (the Times, the Examiner or Newsmax).

Newsmax, in fact, ran a pair rather curious reprints or collaborations with Media Matters, usually associated with the left on July 17^th and again on the 20^th.

In this strange display of bipartisanship... or perhaps editorial economics... the conservative Newsmax published two Media Matters exposés which exposed... conservatives: a run down and running down of “right wing media” (Attachment Twenty Nine) including Fox, the Daily Wire, an assortment of bloggers and conspiracy theorists and, even, Newsmax host Chris Salcedo for saying: “Newsflash folks, it gets hot in the summer.”  

MM reserved its most toxic venom for novice Fox host Jesse Watters who has already “spun misinformation about renewable energy, decarbonization, and even public health initiatives into ubiquitous talking points that are now routinely used by climate change deniers.” He also opined that “(a) lot of people think construction for these big windmill projects is just slaughtering these whales.” 

But his most controversial accusation (Attachment Thirty) has been that New York City Mayor Eric Adams is plotting to “eliminate authentic New York pizza.”

Where will the liberal pedophiles outside in the heat meet, greet and eat when this happens?

So Don Jones might well be relieved that right wing propaganda is still being promulgated by the right wing media and that Fox... despite its disromance with Mister Trump, is hanging in there... irregardless of its standards and standings among the MAGAbunch and Big Oil, called the weakly liberal Los Angeles Times to task for promoting ‘peak climate idiocy’ after floating ‘occasional blackout’ for ‘the greater good’ (Attachment Thirty One) and the more Socialist-than-liberal Cngresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. for tweeting (or, now, X-ing?) that the Earth broke a record for hottest day in 120,000 years. (Attachment Thirty Two)

Omar, who used the tweet to call for a "climate emergency" declaration, added that the record for hottest day ever was broken on three separate days. However, Omar's tweet was met with skepticism and was tagged with a Twitter community note casting doubt on the claim.

"What was the temperature of the globe at 12pm GMT on July 1st, 116,539 BC?" former White House adviser Stephen Miller responded.

"Is this satire?" added Republican Utah Senate candidate Trent Staggs, the current mayor of Riverton, Utah.

(Actually, it’s Eemianomics... see Attachment Forty, below)

The Fox personally singled out Time-server Sammy Roth, who said he has increasingly concluded that solving climate issues will "require sacrifices" to provide for "the greater good." Such sacrifices, he hypothesized, could include driving less, eating less meat, accepting large-scale solar farms that will destroy some wildlife habitat and eating the cost of expensive rooftop paneling (as a side dish to their supper of tofu and nettles). 

Energy-related public policy analyst David Blackmon claimed the article was part of a "propaganda campaign" designed to "condition" people to believe they have no choice but to live with and accept frequent blackouts. He also suggested the LA Times was finally saying "the quiet part out loud."

"This is classic religious cult propaganda," Blackmon added.

Fox doubled down on electric vehicles and their standards, too, calling them the cause of maybe the biggest misallocation of capital in modern times in the industrial markets. Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be spent chasing these mandates, requirements." (July 18^th, Attachment Thirty Three)

"Ultimately, if implemented, bans on conventionally powered vehicles will lead to draconian impediments to affordable and convenient driving and a massive misallocation of capital in the world’s $4 trillion automotive industry," contends Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills.

"(Technical) uncertainties could lead to havoc if U.S. and European regulators enshrine 'green disclosures' in legally binding ways, and it all will be subject to manipulation, if not fraud."

Climate change and concerns about the same have been around a few years now... back in 2015 when summer was just summer and winter just winter, the liberal Think Progress group took on prototype denialist Bjorn Lombor and his conservative Copenhagen Consensus Center.

Let’s just say that if governments followed Lomborg's suggestions for addressing climate change, posits TP’s Greg Laden, “civilization would not do well.” (TP, 2/2/15, Attachment Thirty Four) :If you think anthropogenic global warming is for real, important, and something we can address, then you won’t like Lomborg’s ideas much. Same with energy. He gets that wrong too.”

(DJI note – The Lomborg editorial... being economically as well as ecologically conservative... has been redacted by a paywall. Rich people can attempt to access it via the links in the attachment or scanning the date.)

Lending its prestige to the climate change denialists, the New York Post warned: “DON’T BUY THE HYPE THAT HOT WEATHER IS A MASS KILLER!”

Calling out its D.C. namesake on the Fourth of July (Attachment Thirty Five), this post’s David Harsanyi posted the news that “extreme heat kill(ing) more people in the United States than any other weather hazard” is the first claim in that Post’s piece warning about the deadly summer heat — “and it is almost certainly false.”

The only reason “extreme” temperature kills more people than other weather hazards is that deaths from weather have plummeted over the century — even as doomsday climate warnings about heat, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts have spiked.

“All extreme weather accounts for only about 0.1 death for every 100,000 people in the United States each year.

“That is a massive drop from the time of your grandparents.”

The Post, the other Post alleges, counts anyone exposed to heat over 90 F as being in some level of danger.

“Fortunately, most (fortunate) Americans enjoy the luxury and health benefits of air conditioning, one of the great innovations of the past century.”

“Around 700 people a year” have perished from oppressive heat., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — if, the New Yorkers add, you liberally count heat as both the “underlying” or “contributing” causes.

It is about 400 people when heat is the underlying cause.

“And that’s terrible.

“But, also, it’s around 3,600 fewer people than those who drown every year.”

The New York Post toasties also included their Peanu Gallery in which one ZS accused “the left” of lower(ing) criteria for weather events to be considered severe. “When I was a kid, a blizzard warning meant heavy snow, sustained high winds and temperatures below 20 degrees.”

A lot of tough old manly men derided the effeminate climate fearing millenials. I’m 72 and ran 2 miles this morning with temp 76 and 98% humidity, SD posted. “Felt great. I used to live in Minnesota and cross country skied 42 kilometers at -10 Fahrenheit. Give me heat!”

“I love hot weather,” seconded BE... “(l)ived in Dallas, TX for a couple of years and it was up to 116° and 80% humidity in the Summer.

“South Florida weather during the Summer months is delightful, too.”

And BC took a swipe at another instigator of the climate change wussiness... the media.

“(H)ave you noticed that our TV weather clowns never mention the air temperature much anymore in the summer? They love focusing on the 'feels like' temperature. Why is that? Because they can make the 'feels like' temperature read into the triple digits and scare people into believe in global warming.” And a chorus of climate change disbelievers chimed in, mourning the decline of TV weatherpeople’s burial of their air temperature indices in favor of the more sensational “Heat Index”.

YJ accused the greenies of economic hypocrisy, alleging that “(t)he people who insist that heat is more lethal than cold are probably pushing the "global warming" malarkey as well. However, air conditioning is one of the first "unsustainable" luxuries for the selfish masses they want to eliminate to address the "climate crisis."

And SJ brought home the cultural conflict within climate change discourse, advising: “Reading the Washington Post is harmful to one's health.”

“Mother Nature belly laughs hysterically at these ultra left green energy climate change fools,” added CNJ.

Maybe the WashPost readers all could move to Greenland... which ranked dead last on the survey of national heat and cold published by Trading Economics (Attachment “A”). WaPo interviewed one Andrew Christ (!), a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vermont who examined the detritus of the past... twigs, moss and leaves mixed with sediments extracted from deep beneath the Cold War military facility... constructed, then abandoned as “Project Iceworm” a disastrous scheme to hide dozens of soldiers under the glaciers and have them jump out and kill Russians. Team Christ concluded that the material came “from a period about 416,000 years ago, when Earth’s temperature wasn’t much higher than it is now.”

The results meant that Greenland once lost a tremendous amount of ice under climate conditions very much like the ones humans have created and are currently living in.

“If the Greenland ice sheet could melt substantially in the past, it is going to change our projections for the future,” said Christ.

The interglacial that occurred between 426,000 and 396,000 years ago, which is known to scientists by the unwieldy name “Marine Isotope Stage 11,” was of the long and mild variety. If plants were growing in northwest Greenland back then — as the new Science study suggests — the same could happen during a future stretch of prolonged warm conditions.

Other studies — including a preliminary analysis of Christ’s Cold War sediments published in 2021 — “have showed that the ice sheet nearly vanished at least once in the past million years.”

Maybe Donald Trump’s adventure capital proposal to buy the big, icy island from the Danes was a mark of stable genius after all!

Time proposed time traveling from 400,000 years since the last climate crisis to a relatively modest 120,000 (give or take a few)... a period called the Eemian Epoch, when temperatures were warmer than today’s, woolly mammoths “lumbered about” and hippopotami roamed the streets and wallowed in the canals of Europe. (July 21, Attachment Thirty Seven)

But it wasn’t all balmy Decembers and big, tasty animals on the griddle... one study in Research Gate found that Eemian hurricanes were stronger and more northerly than those observed today—even increasing the incidence of winter storms, which lasted well beyond the contemporary hurricane season. Another, in Scientific Reports, found Eemian droughts and brush fires in Australia that lasted multiple centuries at a time. Yet more research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that the Eemian was characterized by “‘superstorms’ more intense than any observed historically.”

If the Eemian is Earth’s past, it is also Earth’s portent—a potential warning of the kind of climatological upheaval we face if we allow our global temperature to creep past the 1ºC threshold to the 2ºC that defined the Eemian. (July 21^st, Attachment Thirty Seven)

It wasn’t human-induced pollution that dominated the Eemian (people of 120,000 BC were marveling over advances that their multi-great grandparents of 300,000 years past never contemplated... stuff like rocks and, for the fortunate, fire. Scientists blame the angle of the Earth and the relative positions of the planet and the sun. Earth does not spin evenly around its axis, but rather, can wobble like a top—a process called precession. At the beginning of the Eemian, that wobble pointed the North Pole toward the sun, slightly increasing the 23.7 degree angle the Earth usually maintains, and exposing the northern hemisphere to more sunlight than it would usually get.

Then, too, the Earth was closer to the sun... “eccentricities” in the Earth’s orbit can, according to Gifford Miller, distinguished professor emeritus of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, result in “an overall increase of 12% of the sun’s energy received.”

That 12% made a difference. “Arctic areas that once weren’t hospitable to trees begin to support them. Leaf canopies cover up bright, white snow, which would ordinarily reflect sunlight back into space. Instead the leaves absorb the heat, warming up the Arctic forests and causing them, like the oceans, to release temperature-raising water vapor into the atmosphere.”

Then too there was the lesser-known matter of methane hydrates—again both an Eemian and, says Syee Weldeab, professor of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a likely contemporary problem. A combination of methane and water, methane hydrates usually remain in a frozen state in the deep ocean. As the ocean warms, however, the deposits thaw and separate, releasing the methane alone—another powerful greenhouse gas, allowing it to rise up in the water and escape into the atmosphere.

“The Eemian ultimately came to an end after the Earth straightened its tilt a little and returned to its usual aphelion-perihelion cycle; by the time that happened—13,000 years after the Eemian began—the ice from the prior glaciation had been lost,” Time concluded. Might we hope that... even should the profiteers and politicians of the world come together on this issue... a return to normalcy might occur slightly faster?

Another Post (Wash, not New York) survey of “the most extreme heat wave the Southern U.S. has faced” (well, at least in 400,000 years) marshaled spores and stories from institutions (the National Weather Service, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and weatherpeople from Europe, Asia and the much ignored and hungry Africa). The Left Post also included tips on how to “understand the science” and beat the heat. (July 21, Attachment Thirty Eight)

And the even leftier GUK contends that the immediate danger of the global roasting is economic, plucking out physically and monetarily stressed Americans like a farmworker who lives with her husband and two sons in small, agricultural town of Lamont, California. Recently, after a series of extreme heatwaves forced her family to run the AC, her monthly electricity costs rose to about $500. Her water bill averages around $100, but because the water is contaminated with pesticides from nearby agricultural fields, her family spends an additional $140 each month to purchase jugs of drinking water. Her grocery bills have gone up as well, after a spate of winter storms disrupted harvests across the state.

“Practically, about one week’s paycheck goes toward rent, the next week’s toward the electrical bill, and the third week’s toward the gas and water bills and the remaining for everything else,” she said. “We just can’t keep up.”

Nearly half of the state’s residents say they struggle to save money or pay for unexpected expenses, according to a recent poll by a consortium of local non-profits. “Many families are just one fire or flood away from financial ruin.” (July 21, Attachment Thirty Nine)

Polling sympathetic experts on the increasing costs of air conditioning and electricity in general, water (increasingly polluted, even undrinkable), food, insurance for homeowners (companies are raising premiums or entirely cancelling flood and fire policies), rents for the renters and... as ever... childcare.

“With water, the existing system was already not working,” said Rachel Cleetus, a climate and energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy organization. (See Attachment Twenty Five)

“And now it’s really falling apart in the face of the pressures from climate change.”

“California already has a huge challenge with inequity,” added Cleetus. “It has a high poverty rate. There’s already an affordable housing crisis in the state. And these kinds of climate risks are just adding an additional layer of risk, and deepening the inequities.”

In fact, many poor and middle-class families are being forced to move to areas that are feeling the impact of climate crisis more intensely. “The housing affordability crisis in California is pushing people out of cities and increasingly out, into locales with a higher risk for extreme heat, higher risk for drought and wildfires,” says Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at the University of California, Irvine.

And the emigration of so many farmworkers is likely to spike food shortages and price hikes as produce (not burned by the fires or drowned by floods) rots in the field for lack of labor.

The family surveyed by GUK thinks about moving, but can’t think of where they could live affordably. “Everywhere in California, we see that it’s the same.”

And weather migrants can cross the Old World off their list of destination... GUK also reported that Europeans (especially in the South but as far north as Belgium, Budapest and Britain. (July 22^nd, Attachment Forty).

Adding to the Euromisery... the bugs. Jen Rouse, who is a caregiver for her mother-in-law near Athens, says she was bitten by a tiger mosquito – an invasive mosquito species increasingly found in European countries – in Athens for the first time.

Insects, heat, wildfires, floods... not to mention the passport and airlines tussles... Americans are choosing to spend their vacations at home this year. Most are sensible... but there are some “heat tourists” who, despite the demises of the Death Valley hiker and a careless car sleeper seek out the hottest hotspots in the Valley.

Alan California, a server at the Last Kind Words Saloon (one of the only watering holes in the national park’s central hub of Furnace Creek) said that earlier this summer, business seemed to be slower.

“But since the heat has picked up drastically lately, we’ve actually gotten busier,” he said of the past week. “For some reason, people want to be out here for the heat.” (GUK, July 22, Attachment Forty One)

“Who in their right mind would hike this time of the year?” a tourist from Ohio told the Guardian. “Other than David Goggins, I don’t know who else would do it,” he said, referencing a runner who has completed the Badwater 135 several times.

Yesterday, Forbes published a summary of the most tempest tossed and terrorized heat records of 2023 (Attachment Forty Two) including all of the favorites on your Heat Parade mentioned above, along with a few others. Most took place in the West and Southwest but there were also new records in Florida, Oregon, even Billings, Montana (99° on June 30^th).

And the heat has been cause for the death of “(m)ore than 70 migrants have died in Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, including at least 14 in Sunland Park since May, reported the El Paso Times (Attachment Forty Three).

Over the weekend, CNN reported that the global climate crisis tightened its grip on America’s southwest, on Europe... the Greek government said nearly 19,000 people had been evacuated on Rhodes since Saturday, Italy’s northern region of Veneto was pounded with tennis-ball sized hail and, in the Balkans, severe thunderstorms storms claimed several lives CNN’s affiliate N1 reported Thursday. (Sunday, July 23, Attachment Forty Four) Also yesterday, ABC asserted that the last 20 days on Earth have been the hottest 20 days on record, meteorology records show. “The hottest day ever recorded in the northern hemisphere was measured on Saturday, when average temperatures reached 22.46 degrees Celsius -- or about 72.43 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record, 22.18 degrees Celsius -- about 71.92 degrees Fahrenheit -- was set in summer 2022.”

CNN predicted the new frontier of deadly heat will be in the upper Midwest, preveiously temperate, and, eventually the BosWash corridor (including New York and Philadelphia).

“Temperatures are expected to skyrocket in the 90s and 100s in places like Fargo, North Dakota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri and Minneapolis this week. Some regions will experience heat indices of 105 degrees or more.”

Salt Lake City tied its 104° record for the hottest July 22^nd on record at 2:30 PM; an hour later it reached 106° (highest of Year 2023 and only one degree shy of the 107° all time record). To complicate the misery, Fox 13 SLC (Attachment Forty Six) reported that 1,467 Rocky Mountain Power customers were without power due to a substation failure.

“A few hundred other outages occurred throughout Salt Lake, Utah and Tooele counties on Saturday.”

This morning (July 24, 11:19 AM, Attachment Forty Seven) the Washington Post peered into the future and determined that the relentless “heat dome” that has caused an outbreak of extreme temperatures is about to expand across even more of the country.

The heat is forecast to be most pervasive on Wednesday and Thursday, when more than 250 million people in the United States will experience heat indexes — a measure of how hot it feels, factoring in humidity — over 90 degrees. Temperatures are predicted to be above normal in all regions but the Pacific Northwest.

By Friday, East Coast highs should surge well into the 90s. “Dulles Airport is forecast to hit 99, tying a record. It’s possible Washington could see its first triple-digit high since Aug. 15, 2016. Upper 90s are likely in New Jersey and around New York City, while mid-90s line the Connecticut River Valley from Hartford to Springfield, Mass.”

Looking ahead, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center's outlook for Friday through Aug. 2. (Pivotal Weather) foresees no end in sight to the exceptional heat dominating North America. “Most heat domes break down after a week or two, but not this one — it looks to remain large and in charge into August.

The Climate Prediction Center continues to portray a likelihood of hot weather predominating over the United States well into next week. An exception may be the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Northeast, where near or slightly below-average temperatures are possible.”

And ABC (yesterday, Attachment Forty Eight) reiterated that life under the Heat Dome would continue to be miserable for millions. Weekend western tragic temperatures of note included broken records in Palm Springs, California, which hit 115 degrees on Saturday, breaking its record with nine consecutive days of 115 degrees, Phoenix (breaking a daily record on Saturday with a high of 118 degrees, continuing its record stretch with 23 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees and six days in a row with temperatures at 115 degrees or higher) as well as Sunday morning’s “low” also continued the city's record stretch of 14 consecutive days of not dropping below 90 degrees.

“When Las Vegas reached 115 degrees on Saturday, it broke a record set in 1937 at 114 degrees, extending its streak to nine days in a row at or above 110 degrees. The record for consecutive days above 110 degrees could be broken on Monday.

“Tucson, Arizona, hit a daily record of 111 degrees on Saturday, shattering the record set in 2006 at 108 degrees. The city is now at eight days in a row at 110 degrees or above, tying with the record set in 2021. Tucson is also extending the record for the total number of non-consecutive days at 110 degrees or above, now at 14 days this year. The previous records were set in 1990 and 1994, at 10 days.

“In El Paso, the record-smashing consecutive days of 100 degrees or higher is currently at 37 days, with no end in sight in the foreseeable future. The previous record was set in 1994, at 23 consecutive days.”

Even Alaska is feeling the heat. The National Weather Service in Caribou is predicting the region's hottest month ever (of any month) for this July, with records going back to 1939.

And at the other end of America’s northern tier, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald reports that desperate Joneses, overwhelmed by high housing costs, are migrating towards zip codes with a high risk of experiencing wildfire, heat, drought and flood, according to a new study on domestic migration by Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm.

In fact, the nation’s most flood-prone counties experienced a net influx of about 400,000 people in 2021 and 2022. That represents a 103% increase from the two-year period before that. The U.S. counties with the highest risk of wildfire saw 446,000 more people move in than out over the last two years (a 51% increase from 2019 and 2020). And the counties with the highest heat risk registered a net influx of 629,000, a 17% uptick. (Attachment Forty Nine)

It’s not that people don’t care about climate dangers, says Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. It’s that concerns about affordability are primary and dominate everything else. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, the combination of remote work, low mortgage rates and high home prices in a number of major metropolitan areas prompted many Americans to relocate to the Sun Belt.

“People are seeking out places with warm weather and low taxes,” Fairweather said in an interview. “Those near-term concerns tend to trump any of these climate risks.”

Now that “warm” is giving way to hot – hot – hot and property insurers are boycotting the cheapest (and most at-risk locations), Redfin found in a separate analysis that 55% of homes built so far this decade face wildfire risk and 45% face drought risk. By comparison, just 14% of homes built from 1900 to 1959 are at risk for fire and 37% for drought.

(“While the macro trend is migration to risky areas, there are two noteworthy exceptions... hurricane-prone Louisiana and Paradise, Calif., the scene of the devastating Camp Fire in 2018.” Both saw a net outflow of residents, proving that perhaps there is a line where enough is enough.)

And the end? The BBC reported that the U.S. National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center says this latest heatwave will last another two weeks. (Attachment Fifty)

Washington state's Democratic governor Jay Inslee told ABC News yesterday that the heatwaves reported around the world are evidence that... lifting a line from a CNN interview with Chief Meteorologist and Director of Climate Matters, Bernadette Woods Placky two weeks ago: "the Earth is screaming at us".

"The fuse has been burning for decades, and now the climate change bomb has gone off," was his (presumably original) addition.

"The scientists are telling us that this is the new age. This is the age of consequences."

	Our Lesson: July Seventeenth through Twenty Third, 2023
Monday, July 17, 2023 Dow: 34.585.35	Heat and flooding continue (above) and the smoke is back... not only from Canada, but from California wild fires, too. Plus dust, blowing east from the Sahara. Storms in the Northeast cancel 1500 flights. Teamsters tell President Joe not to intervent in their pending strike with UPS “if, like, ya know what’s good for da family.” Writers and actors’ walkout in Hollywood said to be costing the American economy $7 billion as politicians mount their fences and pontificate. Disney’s Iger calls their demands “unrealistic”. MI 7 gets mixed reviewsgets and Okay $80M box office. CBS tries out a new trick to treat viewers to scripted TV during the strike... broadcasting old basic cable stations on network, old premium cable programming on basic cable and old streaming programs on premium cable. It’s a sort of reverse class warfare, winning friends and influencing people
Tuesday, July 18, 2023 Dow: 34,951.93	“Common Sense” advocates float third party talk with figureheads like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and former Russian ambassador Jon Huntsman. Democrats scoff, but some admit they could throw the 2024 election for Djonald UnIndicted (well, not for the One Six, not yet). Moscow squirms as Ukes blow up a key bridge their army uses to travel from Crimea to the combat zone, then launchs a vengeful rocket attack on civilian targets and declares there will be no more shipping of grain (or anything) to and through the Black Sea, starving Africans and winning friends like the Devil. Texas whistleblower accuses Gov. Abbott of ordering the Department of Public Safery (think French revolution). National Guard, police and migrant hunters to deny water to foreign invaders at the border, throw small children into the Rio Grande to sink or swim and shred them with razor wire barriers. But no land mines, yet. TV doc La Pook ponders the pros and cons of robodocs, including a MicroSoft executive who gloats over health providers’ concerns, saying “The day is coming when you all will be extinct.”
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Dow: 35,061.25	It’s National Hot Dog Day. Hot dogs, and other animals struggling in the heat... clueless dogwalkers make them walk on pavements as hot as 150°. Hot beasts are breaking out of zoos and farms – deputies in Mississippi chase down and capture Clyde the Camel, other police corral a llama. The happy news is that a man and his dog are rescued at sea after three months adrift, surviving on fish and rainwater. Murky videos of hot dog chef turned nnsurrectionis Priggy lurking with Luka in the shadows of Minsk... but it may just be another body double trick. The treat in America is Jack Smith “presenting” (how sophisticated!) Djonald Un-Unindicted with a “target letter” that implies he will be arrested soon on the One Six case (with Stormy and the Docs headed to trial and the Georgia vote “finding” plea yet to manifest. Sitting on the fence with rump campaigning against him and feet dangling in the warm waters of the First Amendment (and fear of alienating the Trump Base), St. Ron, Nikki, Scott, Mike and the rest agree he’s being persecuted; only Hutchinson and Christie acknowledging that he brought this on himself. Old cold case of Tupac’s murder getting new attention from police. The Georgia mass killer is gunned down after running “naked and bloody” through a subdivision, and suspicious authorities investigate the kidnapping case of Carlee – releasing to the media accusations that she stole toilet paper at work. (Would’ve been more damaging 2 years ago!)
Thursday, July 13, 2023 Dow: 35,235.18	Broadway union IATSE considering decision to join the rest of the gang in walkout and/or litigation over streaming rights and AI cloned performers. One lucky Californian wins $1.08B Powerball jackpot – gamblers shrug and lay their monty down on the lesser ($700M) MegaMillions. Alleged Gilgo Beach killer Ron Heuerman’s properties inspected... more guns, ammo and weird porn found in South Carolina, New Jersey and womens’ prisons. And his wife is divorcing him, too! The law marches on. Attorneys win a $500,000 settlent for a child burned by hot Chicken McNuggets. Famous son and Presidential candidate RFK Junior says that Covid was caused by somebody who used genetic engineering to save the Jews and Chinese. He replies: “I am not a bigot.” Congress to hold more hearings on UFOs. What is NASA doing? Tracking the weather... and they say that 2024 will be even hotter than 2023!
Friday, July 14, 2023 Dow: 35,227.69	It’s National Junk Food day. Junk food junkie (and former President) Djonald UnHealthy is informed that “the clock is ticking” on his insurrection charges with Jack Smith doing double duty on the documents indictment. There, Judge Eileen Cannon moves the trial date back to May 20, 2024, satisfying neither prosecution nor defense... but The Exile makes the best of it and starts playing the martyr cards. His nearest Republican challenger, Ron DeSantis, tries to inject some white supremacist moxie into his lagging campaign by ordering Florida school teachers to instruct the young that slavery was actually good. Kamala Harris is outraged. President Joe stays busy, negotiating with Big Social Media (Apple, Amazon, Google, MicroSoft etc.) on posts and videos using fake AI apps. Twitter ? And there’s dissension in the ranks of the Hollywood striker... a self-import performer maintains that the writers are expendable, but “technology cannot replace actors”. Dude has never heard of cartoons. Speaking of “elementals”: air (fire), water (floods) earth (landslides) persist and if things weren’t bad enough in Phoenix (119° makes 22 straight days over 110°), fire comes to a propane factory that explodes. Thirty cars are incinerated, but no people. And the rememberers are remembering Tony Bennett, RIP at 96. “Heaven, he’s in Heaven now.”
Saturday, July 15th, 2023 Dow: (Closed)	Wild weather turns to storms as N. Carolina twister levels Pfizer plant, meaning that life-threatening shortage of (good) drugs will start and continue through the year. Add to that the new normal (or abnormal) heat... temperatures of 128° in Furnace (!) Creek and 129° in Badwater Basin threaten world high mark of 130° (some say 134° but that mark was set in 1913 and is considered unreliable), climatologists recommend that Americans paint their roofs white and fires blaze in Canada and Greece... a maniac (no other word) shoots two firefighters in Birmingham AL Want cool? Temperatures in Minnesota and the Dakotas sink to the 50s and 60s... for a little while. Want coal? Joe Manchin (above) joins the Third Party movement that only denies pollution-caused climate change, it supports and enhances it. Their candidate will face President Joe, still waging war on social media, and probably either The Donald or Saint Ron (who enrightens his campaign by asserting that slavery was a good thing). In better news, Barbeheimer finally opens for distraction-starved Joneses, big and small, the Mega Millions jackpot grows to $800K and America’s World Cup soccer team re-fights and wins the war on Viet Nam, 3-0. And men’s soccer fanatics celebrate the signing of Lionel Messi to David Beckham’s Miami team.
Sunday, July 16th, 2023 Dow: (Closed)	Climate change is on the minds of pronouncers and moderators on the Sunday talk shows. Washington (state) governor Jay Inslee says the bomb has gone off and the wolf is at the door. He promises to ban old, gas burning cars by 2035 (rotsa ruck prying the keys to their old pickup trucks from hot, armed, low-income Republicans) and cheerily predicts more green jobs. We are boldly going forward into an “Age of Consequences... Follow Me!” And then there is Trump, seeming as inevitable as hot sweat and wildfires... frantic Special Counsel Jack Smith pivots from the documents case to the One Six to the allegations of election fraud (real and attempted). Djonald UnIndicted (well at least for the One Six, not yet) blames his bad lawyer for all of his tribulations, then sets those lawyers loose to attack the DOJ while his GOpponents dither and hide. Sunday pundits say his only plan is to win the Presidency back in 2024 and pardon himself. Foreign affairer-ers say that the idiot American soldier who ran into NoKo is likely to be tortured and held for ransom. Many say” “Let him stay!” Israel faces a Knesset election that will vote on heartsick but stalwart Netanyaho to obliterate the judiciary and rule as Fuhrer. States are ruling to kick sick and senior Americans off Medicaid and pitch them out into the streets to die the way that police in Circleville, IL set the dogs on black truck drivers with missing mudflaps. America yawns. Many have been hanging out in (air-conditioned) multiplexes to watch Barbenheimer straight through.
Employers are being squeezed at both ends... not enough legal, of age employees to do the hot, dirty sub-subsistance pay jobs that keep America percolating, and not enough highly trained, high tech engineers, pilots, cybergeeks and other brainy gals and fellows who command high pay and swanky bennies. A harried minwager scoffs “people just don’t want to work” and after years of plague, subsidies and work-from-home options, that may be true. But, as those disincentives to labor are being taken away, unemployment is dropping, the number and percentage of Joneses re-entering the job market is up and so is the stock market. Inflation is up too, not as much as formerly but too much for the Fed, which is expected to raise rates this week, and we shall see if that cools off the hot economy the way a welcomed (small) thunderstorm would cool off a hot city.

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

See a further explanation of categories here…

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/17/13 & 1/1/22	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	6/19/23	+0.28%	8/23	1,444.97	1,444.97	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages   28.83
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	7/10/23	+0.025%	7/31/23	609.33	609.48	http://www.usdebtclock.org/   35,940
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	5/8/23	- 2.78%	8/23	633.65	633.65	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/  3.6
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	7/10/23	- 3.59%	7/31/23	257.62	266.86	http://www.usdebtclock.org/      5,967
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	7/10/23	- 5.11%	7/31/23	306.96	322.66	http://www.usdebtclock.org/     9.934
Workforce Particip. Number Percent	2%	300	7/10/23	+0.576% +0.319%	7/31/23	304.32	305.29	In 163,374 Out 99,864 Total: 263,238 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 62.06
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	2/27/23	nc (4 mos.)	8/23	151.19	151.19	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.60 nc
OUTGO	15%	Biggest jump: used cars
Total Inflation	7%	1050	5/22/23	+0.2%	8/23	988.93	985.95	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.2
Food	2%	300	5/22/23	+0.1%	8/23	277.94	277.66	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.1
Gasoline	2%	300	5/22/23	+1.0%	8/23	257.98	255.40	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm    +1.0
Medical Costs	2%	300	5/22/23	nc	8/23	296.97	296.97	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     nc
Shelter	2%	300	5/22/23	+0.4%	8/23	275.47	274.37	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.4
WEALTH	6%
Dow Jones Index	2%	300	7/10/23	+1.79%	7/31/23	282.75	287.80	https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 35,227.69
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	5/1/23	-3.26% +3.56%	7/23	134.58 290.74	130.20 301.09	https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M):  4.16 Valuations (K):  410.2
Debt (Personal)	2%	300	7/10/23	+0.254%	7/31/23	276.72	276.02	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    73,409
NATIONAL	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	7/10/23	+0.38%	7/31/23	394.29	395.80	debtclock.org/       4,722
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	7/10/23	+0.99%	7/31/23	330.26	327.00	debtclock.org/       6,286
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	7/10/23	+0.18%	7/31/23	414.60	413.86	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    32,610 (The debt ceiling... now kicked forward to 1/1/25... had been 31.4)
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	7/10/23	+0.14%	7/31/23	397.98	397.43	http://www.usdebtclock.org/    101,396
GLOBAL	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	7/10/23	+0.056%	7/31/23	345.48	345.29	http://www.usdebtclock.org/   7,240
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	5/22/23	-0.76%	8/23	153.48	153.48	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 247.1
Imports (bl.)	1%	150	5/22/23	+0.315%	8/23	172.26	172.26	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 317.1*
Trade Deficit (bl.)	1%	150	5/22/23	+8.12%	8/23	287.16	287.16	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 69.0

SOCIAL INDICES (40%)
ACTS of MAN	12%
World Affairs	3%	450	7/10/23	-0.2%	7/31/23	454.43	453.51	Israel’s Knesset ponders bill to cancel judiciary and make Netanyahu a dictator as Jew on Jew riots ensue. Nuns flee as fires overtake Greek monasteries and evacuees from Rhodes reach 19,000. After Chinese jets buzz Taiwan and NoKo fires off more missiles, the American nuclear sub Kentucky arrives in SoKo to intimidate the bad guys into behaving (they don’t). Idiot soldier defects to NoKo, causing het another hostage crisis... many say just leav him there.
Terrorism	2%	300	7/10/23	-0.2%	7/31/23	291.02	290.44	The war grinds on... Moscow terrorizes civilians with airstrikes, Ukes blow up main bridge to Crimea. Russia retaliates by closing the Black Sea to boats carrying food to starving Africans.
Politics	3%	450	7/10/23	-0.2%	7/31/23	480.50	479.54	RFK Jr. accused of anti-Semitism, Gov. Abbott (R-Tx) of denying water to immigrant children and shredding them with razor wire, Gov. DeSantis (R-Fl) of saying that slavery was a good thing. Trump facing third indictment... “soon”... other G.O.P. candidates mutter polite platitudes. Third “polite” party accused of abetting Trump 2024 and of being a puppet of Big Oil. President Joe keeps busy fighting junk rental fees and memorializing Emmitt Till.
Economics	3%	450	7/10/23	-0.3%	7/31/23	429.62	428.33	Teamsters representing UPS workers planning to join Hollywood on strikes – as do Broadway actors - next will come airline workers. No vacations this summer due to passport red tape and now the EU and others requiring visas. Twitter revenues cut in half so Eelon changes its name to X and kills off the little blue bird.
Crime	1%	150	7/10/23	-0.2%	7/31/23	254.28	253.52	True crime fanatics follow Carla Russell through her story of kidnapping, escape and, ultimately, hoaxing. Gilgo Beach killer (alleged) had 200 guns and a secret vault... his family clueless. Gun fun week: 26 shot, 6 die in Chicago, 3 killed in Louisiana workplace shooting, two firefighters shot in Biringmay and more in New Zealand. But an Arizona fireman is arrested for starting fires. Scammers cashing in on airline rebooking fraud.
ACTS of GOD	(6%)
Environment/Weather	3%	450	7/10/23	+0.1%	7/31/23	405.13	405.54	Life under the Dome goes on – Phoenix commandeers (hopefully disinfected) mobile plague hospitals to use as cooling centers, storms in East and Midwest (tornado levels Rocky Mount, NC... aka Mayberry) and Canadian smoke meets and mingles with Sahara dust. That dust said to be a hurricane inhibitor... Don (not Jones, the storm) drifts off to sea to bother the fish.
Disasters	3%	450	7/10/23	+0.1%	7/31/23	435.04	435.48	Stupid spectator stumbles into the path of Tour de France cyclists to take a selfie and causes an epic crash. Montana mayham sees 30 injured (no fatalities) as deck collapses at Billings golf tourney and a woman is killed by a bear in Yellowstone. Fifty injured in Johannesburg, S.A. explosion that might be gas, might be terror... four die in Alaska copter crash, but ten year old survives fall off Moby Dick carnival ride in Illinois. Man and dog survive on fish or water (no whale meat) for three months adrift at sea.
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX			(15%)
Science, Tech, Educ.	4%	600	7/10/23	+0.1%	7/31/23	632.24	632.87	Seven high tech companies agree to discuss regulations but Twitter (or X) not one of them and Project Liberty Lobby (!) wants to destroy all Social Media monsters. Congress to hold hearings on UFOs. Will Hunter Biden be implicated? Soros, Gates, Musk? Reptiles? NASA predicts 2024 will be hotter than 2023... on the Earth, The moon will still be cold.
Equality (econ/social)	4%	600	7/10/23	-0.1%	7/31/23	616.70	616.08	Admiral Lisa Franchetti becomes first female Chief of Naval Operations. President Joe commands monument to Emmitt Till, but Missouri revokes its George Floyd anti-racism resolution and Alabama defies SCOTUS anti-gerrymandering resolution. Black deaf students get their high school diplomas 70 years after being denied. Cops sic K-9 on black truck driver with missing mudflap.
Health	4%	600	7/10/23	-0.2%	7/31/23	471.09	470.15	Investigators say 11% of hospital and clinic patient diagnoses are wrong. TV Doc LaPook says robodocs will make his profession extinct. Some day. American Heart Asn. says vaping is bad. Some states are kicking sick and senior Americans off Medicaid now that plague conditions have expired.
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	7/10/23	nc	7/31/23	470.58	470.58	Taco John and Taco Bell abandon Taco Tuesday litigation as expensive and pointless. Former Tiger Woods girlfriend drops $30M palimony suit – same reason. And Djonald UnFundme complains his campaign finances are being eaten up by legal bills... but he still leads the field.
MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX					(7%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	7/10/23	+0.2%	7/31/23	500.29	501.29	Broadway actors from IATSE join SAG actors and Writers’ guilders in Hollywood strike. Women’s soccer team smooshes Vietnam at the World Cup – amongst the men, Lional Messi signed to David Beckham’s Inter-Miami team. Indiana Jones 5 and Mission Impossible 7 fading as Barbenheimer takes top two box office slots. Taylor Swift’s remake of her “Speak Now” album debuts as #1... her 12^th, topping Streisand. RIP Tony Bennett and Twitter’s blue bird of bankruptcy.
Misc. incidents	4%	450	7/10/23	+0.2%	7/31/23	483.80	484.77	Lotto players contemplate swanky billion dollar Powerball and junior $800M Mega Millions – a lucky Californian wins the former, the latter still open. Rich somebody buys old (2007) iPhone for $190,000 because it’s still in the box! Elton John says Kevin Spacey got a raw deal, then announces retirement. Police take a break from human on human crime to round up a camel, a llama and, in Berlin, a tiger. Nevada “cowboys” kill eleven wild mustangs by snapping their necks.

The Don Jones Index for the week of July 17th through July 23rd, 2023 was UP 23.67 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENT ONE – From the AZ Central/Republic

MARICOPA COUNTY REPORT CONFIRMS 18 HEAT-RELATED DEATHS IN PHOENIX AREA SO FAR THIS YEAR

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

So far this year, there have been 18 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County.

There are 69 other deaths also under investigation by officials that could potentially cause the number to balloon even further. 

According to a weekly report published by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, out of the 18 deaths this year, 13 were caused by heat while five were related. By the same time last year, 29 deaths were already confirmed and 193 were under investigation by the county.

This year’s first heat-related death came later than last year with it being on April 11. The first heat-related death in 2022 was on March 13.

Shattered: Another Phoenix heat record has been broken. Here's our tally of all the records broken during heat wave

About one-third of the confirmed deaths were unhoused people. (“Unhoused” is the newest Woke Word for “homeless”... and also vaguely inaccurate – if a human is not sleeping on the street, but in an alternate shelter... like a government or private facility or a vehicle... are they Unhoused? – DJI. Then, too, a house is not always a home.) One-third of the deaths were of people 75 years or older.

Lack of air conditioning led to at least three indoor deaths. Hospital visits related to heat-related illnesses have increased as the summer progresses and temperatures increase.

ATTACHMENT TWO – From Fox News

HEAT-ASSOCIATED DEATHS IN PHOENIX CONTINUE TO RISE AS TEMPERATURES HIT 110 DEGREES FOR 20 STRAIGHT DAYS

Deaths related to the AZ heat rose to 18 this year, but so far lag behind last year’s figures

Published July 20, 2023 10:48am EDT

Californians face power outages as extreme heat wave sweeps across state

The Five' panelists discuss how California is preparing for heat-induced blackouts amid a push towards electric vehicles.

· Health officials confirmed last week that the heat wave in Phoenix has led to six more deaths.  

· While Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, confirmed 18 heat-related deaths this year, the region recorded 29 deaths by this time last year.

· Scorching temperatures in the Arizona city have hit 110 degrees for 20 straight days, breaking heat wave records among big U.S. cities.

Confirmations of heat-related deaths continue to rise in Maricopa County amid a punishing hot spell with 110-degree Fahrenheit plus weather persisting for a record 20 days so far.

Public health officials in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, reported Wednesday that there were six more heat-associated fatalities confirmed last week, bringing the year’s total so far to 18.

All six of those deaths didn't necessarily occur last week. Some may have occurred in earlier weeks but were not confirmed as heat-associated until after a thorough investigation.

PHOENIX TEMPERATURES HIT 110 DEGREES FOR 19TH STRAIGHT DAY, BREAKING HEAT WAVE RECORDS AMONG BIG US CITIES

By this time last year, 29 heat-associated deaths had been confirmed in the county and another 193 were under investigation.

David Hondula, direct of heat response and mitigation for the City of Phoenix, noted last week that heat deaths seemed to be lagging this year but warned against drawing any conclusions this early in the season.

There were 425 heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County for all of 2022.

The majority of this year's heat-associated deaths have been outside, with just four reported indoors. Three of the inside deaths involved broken air conditioners and the fourth involved a cooling system that was not turned on.

Because of past deaths due to power shutoffs, Arizona utilities have adopted rules not to turn off power during excessive heat warnings like the current one declared by the National Weather Service.

HEAT WAVE EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY THIS WEEK LEADING TO INCREASED RISK OF HEART ATTACKS, DEATHS, ACCORDING TO WMO

The Arizona Corporation Commission, the state's utility regulator, additionally allows the providers it oversees to choose between pausing disconnections June 1 through October 15 or pausing them on days forecasted to be above 95 degrees Fahrenheit or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

This year's suspected heat-associated deaths have included a 73-year-man who got a flat tire Sunday when he was bicycling in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye. He told his family that he would walk to a nearby fire station for help but died before he could get there.

ATTACHMENT THREE – From Fox News TV Arizona

PHOENIX BREAKS ALL-TIME RECORD FOR WARMEST LOW, SETS A NEW DAILY HIGH

By Nicole Garcia , Brian Webb and FOX 10 Staff Published July 19, 2023 7:54AM Updated 9:58PM

PHOENIX - Phoenix Sky Harbor reached a low of 97 degrees on Wednesday, making it the highest low temperature ever recorded in the city - and it set a new daily high of 119 degrees just a few hours later.

The previous record high set on this date was 116 degrees, which was set back in 1989.

The city also broke the all-time record low of 96 degrees that was set back in 2003.

The Valley continues to bust heat records in the middle of a historic heat wave. Wednesday is expected to be the 20th day with temperatures above 110 degrees in Phoenix, and the streak does not appear to be coming to an end for at least the next two weeks.

On Tuesday, Phoenix reached 118ºF, tying the record for the hottest day of 2023 and breaking the daily record of 115ºF set back in 1989.

Some outdoor workers continue to deal with extreme heat

Some workers in Arizona can escape the extreme heat, but not everyone is that lucky. At Arizona airports, some workers have to endure extremely hot temperatures during their line of work. FOX 10's Nicole Garcia reports.

Amid the extreme heat, many workers still have to work outside.

Among those who have to work outdoors are airport workers with duties on the tarmac. No matter how intolerable the hot temperatures may feel, line service workers still have to make sure that planes are safe, loaded, and serviced for travel.

"You've got the sun from above, you got the heat coming off the concrete, it's hard to explain it if you've never experienced it," said Amy George with Gateway Aviation Services.

According to workers, temperatures on the tarmac can be around 20F higher than the outdoor temperature. That means on a day with 116F temperatures, temperatures could reach 136F on the tarmac.

Meanwhile, employees are equipped with proper clothing, as well as properly hydrated.

"Provided with skin coverings, arm sleeves, cooling towels. Try to keep everybody as covered as we can, along with being able to manage it while we're here," said George.

Managers also increase hydration options and breaks, along with decreasing employees' heat exposure.

"We provide different hydration drinks for people when they come in. Always make sure people take water with them when they go outside, and as best can limit the amount one person spends outside. Don't get sick while they're here," said George.

AZ ice delivery workers bring heat relief

Working in the extreme heat is not something that is considered to be particularly great, but some, like ice delivery workers, do have a job that is quite cool, in more ways than one. FOX 10's Brian Webb reports.

Not all outdoor workers have to constantly deal with the extreme heat, however, as ice delivery workers cina get some measure of relief from the heat during the course of their day.

"It’s good. It’s just a high demand," said Matthew Ramirez. "Everybody wants ice right now."

Ramirez, however, says some people don't understand the work that is required of them.

"Everybody says we have the coolest job in the summer, but they don’t understand. We sweat it a lot. It’s a lot of work," said Ramirez.

Ramirez works for a company called AZ Iceman. The company began with one small truck, but later expanded to dozens of drivers who make deliveries 24/7. Ramirez makes about a dozen deliveries a day.

As Arizonans endure extreme hot temperatures, it can be hard at times to imagine how life would look like without air condition. Unfortunately, some Phoenix area families are living that, and that includes a woman who lives at an apartment complex. FOX 10's Lindsey Ragas reports.

ATTACHMENT FOUR – From the Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON-AREA LOGS 3RD HEAT-RELATED DEATH OF 2023 AMID HEAT WAVE

The 89-year-old was found unresponsive on a sidewalk near his apartment complex.

By Michael Murney July 20, 2023

Another Houston-area resident has died from heat-related health issues, marking the region's third heat-related death amid an ongoing heat wave scorching Texas. 

Per Houston Public Media's Adam Zuvanich, William Toomey, 89, died last Friday after he was found unresponsive on a sidewalk near his apartment complex in Webster, located southeast of the Houston metro area, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.  According to HPM's Zuvanich, the Institute of Forensic Sciences determined that hypertensive and valvular cardiovascular disease were Toomey's primary causes of death. 

Toomey's is at least the second heat-related death in Harris County and the third in the Houston region so far this summer. Victor Ramos, 67, died on June 24 in his home, which lacked air conditioning. Days before Ramos' death, a construction worker died from prolonged exposure to extreme heat in Fort Bend County.

News of Toomey's death comes as authorities are investigating the death of a Dallas mailman who perished after collapsing in the middle of his daily route amid 115 degree heat index values earlier in June.

Texas' summer months continue be dominated by successive and heightening heat waves. Much of the southeast Texas region remains under a prolonged heat advisory warning from the National Weather Service's Houston and Galveston Office through 10 p.m. tonight, with heat index values above 108 degrees expected from Lufkin in the east down to Victoria in the south.   

The North and Central Texas regions are seeing even more extreme heat, with heat indices expected to top out around 113 degrees, according to a Thursday morning forecast from the National Weather Service's Dallas-Fort Worth Office.     

ATTACHMENT FIVE – From the Guardian UK

HOUSTON, TEXAS CONFIRMS FIRST HEAT-RELATED DEATH

July 17, 12.08 EDT

Houston, Texas has just confirmed its first heat-related death.

Victor Ramos, 67, was found in his home in south-west Houston, which did not have air conditioning. He died on 24 June in hospital. Ramos’ sister Karla told local Houston news outlet KHOU that her brother Ramos could not afford to fix his broken AC unit since he was let go from his job in March.

In nearby Pearland, Texas, Felipe Pascaul, 46, also died from the heat on 16 June. Pascaul was pouring concrete on a construction job site when he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital but did not survive.

The news comes after Texas governor Greg Abbott approved a law in June that eliminated water breaks for construction workers mandated by cities and counties in the state.

The state has seen 14 heat-related deaths this year as of June. Last year, 306 people died in connection to the dangerously high temperatures in Texas.

Texas’s most populous city and the fourth most populous city in the US, Houston is one of many around the country, particularly in the southwest, placed on a heat advisory.

ATTACHMENT SIX – From

CNN

A NEW DANGEROUS LONG-LASTING HEAT WAVE COULD SET DOZENS OF HEAT RECORDS, EVEN IN NOTORIOUSLY HOT PLACES

By Jennifer Gray, CNN meteorologist Updated 2:04 PM EDT, Mon July 10, 2023

Phoenix is supposed to be hot, but the severity of the upcoming heat wave will bring a level of heat that will test even heat-hardy places and do so for longer durations than have ever been observed before.

The heat is hitting South Texas, South Florida and the Southwest US the hardest now and through the workweek, but by the weekend, the hottest temperatures will arrive in the Southwest, making brutally hot cities like Phoenix even hotter.

The latest heat wave is really an extension of a continuous heat wave, which has never really stopped and has been affecting the South since mid-June.

Phoenix could break the record for consecutive days above 110 degrees as a result. The city has been above 110 degrees for 10 consecutive days and could break the record of 19 days next Tuesday.

Yes, it’s summer. Yes, these places are supposed to get hot. But not this hot and for this long. The duration of the current heat wave has meteorologists and climate scientists concerned.

“Earth is screaming at us right now and people need to listen,” Chief Meteorologist and Director of Climate Matters, Bernadette Woods Placky told me. “It should be a wake-up call or an urgency to people that this is just not normal.”

Placky said we are pushing our planet to the brink with so many record-breaking days and highs higher than we’ve ever seen before, and that we are entering uncharted territory globally.

“It puts us in a whole new climate zone,” Placky explained. “It pushes our heat even higher and extends it for longer. And that plays out in a lot of different ways that dramatically affects human health.”

Heat advisories include places like Miami in Florida and Houston and San Antonio in Texas, where heat indices will peak this afternoon at around 110 degrees.

Roughly 30 high temperature records could be broken over the next five days and nearly 100 record high minimums could also break records.

While temperatures across the South should start to cool by a few degrees over the weekend, the heat will continue to worsen across the Southwest “with readings potentially nearing record territory for the coming weekend,” the National Weather Service office in Phoenix said.

Excessive heat warnings are in place for Las Vegas and Phoenix where the highs this week will be at or above 110 degrees and will stay hot long term.

Forty high temperature records and more than 50 record high minimum temperatures could fall over the weekend across the US.

Temperatures around Phoenix will struggle to drop below 90 degrees some nights, which can be deadly for those without air conditioning. Cooler temperatures overnight help to cool our bodies and recover from the heat. With temperatures staying hot overnight, heat stress and heat exhaustion will set in much faster.

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – From the Washington Post

COAST-TO-COAST HEAT DOME SENDS TEMPERATURES SOARING, THREATENS ALL-TIME RECORDS

By Matthew Cappucci Updated July 13, 2023 at 11:04 a.m. EDT |Published July 13, 2023 at 10:52 a.m. EDT

A massive coast-to-coast heat dome is sprawled over the western and southern United States and is forecast to strengthen into the weekend. It’s generating soaring temperatures that are poised to approach all-time records in Phoenix, Las Vegas and California’s Central Valley and surpass 130 degrees in Death Valley, Calif., the heat capital of the world.

In many areas, the longevity of this ongoing heat wave is more remarkable than its intensity. Some locales have seen no relief from dangerous temperatures for over a month, and this heat wave shows no signs of relenting soon.

Excessive-heat watches and warnings or heat advisories affect over 100 million people and cover 15 states from Washington state to New Mexico, including Arizona and California, and from Texas to Florida.

In the West, it’s a blistering, dry heat that presents a growing risk for dehydration.

“Dangerous heat will result in a major to extreme risk for heat-related illnesses for much of the population, especially those who are heat sensitive and those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” wrote the National Weather Service in Hanford, Calif. Excessive-heat warnings are in effect for much of California’s highly populated Central Valley, where highs could reach 117 degrees.

Death Valley could challenge the highest temperature ever reliably measured on the planet. The heat-prone site may make it above 130 degrees over the weekend, surpassing the record mark previously set at the same location in July 2021 and August 2020. Nighttime low temperatures in Death Valley are forecast to exceed 100 degrees.

Across the southern Plains, Deep South and Southeast, tropical moisture will overlap with hot weather to make heat exhaustion and heat stroke a dangerous threat. Heat indexes could climb into the 110-to-120-degree range. Marathon Key, Fla., just netted its hottest five-day period on record, with an average afternoon high of 97.2 degrees. Wednesday featured a heat index of 118 degrees. Unprecedented water temperatures between 94 and 98 degrees are also threatening sensitive corals and marine life.

Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink

The heat is not confined to the Lower 48 states. Southern Europe is also in the early stages of a dangerous heat wave. Excessively high temperatures are forecast from Portugal and Spain through southern Italy and as far east as Romania and Bulgaria on Thursday and Friday.

In Sicily and Sardinia, temperatures could approach 118 degrees (48 Celsius), challenging the highest levels ever observed in Europe, according to the European Space Agency. The heat will expand into Central Europe, including Germany and Poland, over the weekend and may linger over southern Europe for much of next week.

A punishing dry heat in the Southwest U.S.

The National Weather Service's forecast high temperatures for Sunday.

It’s not just Death Valley facing all-time records. Sunday is expected to bring a high of 117 degrees to Las Vegas, which would tie the city’s hottest temperature ever recorded. There’s a chance that Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday could also tie a record-long streak (four days in 2005) of afternoon highs at or above 115 degrees.

In California’s Central Valley, highs will peak between 12 and 15 degrees above average both days this weekend, generally between 108 and 113 degrees. Sunday’s highs have the greatest propensity to shatter records far and wide. A few record-warm overnight lows are also anticipated as temperatures fail to fall below 75 degrees in spots.

Interior Southern California will also swelter. “A dangerous, prolonged heat wave is in store for inland areas through at least early next week, with the hottest days Sat[urday] through Mon[day],” tweeted the Weather Service forecast office in San Diego.

Phoenix, meanwhile, arguably the most heat-prone city in America, established a record warm nighttime low of 94 degrees Wednesday and is poised to set numerous additional records.

Phoenix has already logged 13 days straight with highs at or above 110 degrees and is closing on the record of 18 days which should be surpassed early next week. Every day in the seven-day forecast for Phoenix calls for highs of 112 or greater.

By multiple metrics — including record-warm nights (already three in a row of 90 degrees or hotter) — this is already the city’s worst heat wave on record, and the hottest days are still to come. On Saturday, Phoenix may hit 118 degrees, with an outside chance of 120.

Over the next week, the Weather Service is forecasting an average temperature (of high and low temperatures) of 104.6 degrees in Phoenix, which would crush the city’s previous warmest week on record, which had an average temperature of 102.9 degrees.

It’s worth noting that dry heat is dangerous because, in a dry atmosphere, moisture immediately evaporates off a person’s skin. That means they may not notice they’re sweating and becoming hydrated until it’s too late. Air masses like these quickly desiccate everything around them.

Hot and steamy in the central states and Southeast

For Texas, the southern Plains, the mid-South, Gulf Coast and Florida, intense heat is combining with tropical moisture to bring hazardous heat indexes. Away from the coastline, most of Texas will see air temperatures in the 100-to-105-degree range Thursday, with lower to mid-90s elsewhere across Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The temperatures alone probably won’t break many records.

But extreme humidity, with dew points in the 70s, will spread over most of the region. That means that every cubic meter of air will be holding roughly half a shot glass’s worth of moisture. The atmosphere, which will be closer to saturation, won’t be able to evaporate sweat off a person’s skin and allow evaporative cooling to regulate body temperature. As a result, heat stress will grow, and heat indexes of 105 to 112 degrees will be widespread. A few locations will feel like 115 degrees or worse.

In Florida, a main culprit has been the ongoing historic marine heat wave. A number of spots off the southwest Florida coastline are seeing water temperatures of 95 degrees or greater. That is adding exceptional amounts of moisture into the air.

Miami had a heat index of 110 degrees on Monday and 108 on Tuesday. The city is at 32 days in a row with a heat index over 100 degrees, and a record 11 consecutive days with a heat index topping 105. Only meager improvement is likely in the days ahead, as afternoon thunderstorms return to the forecast.

What’s causing the heat?

Triggering the heat is a sprawling ridge of high pressure, which acts as a force field to deter any storms and deflect the jet stream to the north. That’s allowing sinking air to heat up and dry out, with readings spiking 5 to 15 degrees above average. On Thursday, that heat dome reached from off the coast of the Baja Peninsula and Southern California up to the eastern North Pacific and over to the Gulf of Mexico.

By the middle of next week, however, it’s slated to intensify and consolidate, all while shifting toward New Mexico and Texas. It will anchor itself over the southern Plains and Rockies, spreading its sphere of influence across most of the western, south-central and southeastern U.S. Sunshine will pour down unimpeded, baking the ground even more

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – From

Business Insider

DON'T CALL THE EXTREME HEAT, FLOODING, AND WILDFIRES 'THE NEW NORMAL'

By Catherine Boudreau

Jul 20, 2023, 2:47 PM EDT

· The climate crisis is causing a "new abnormal" characterized by more frequent and intense disasters.

· How media and politicians frame extreme weather shapes how people view climate change.  

· More people are connecting their personal run-ins with disasters to the climate crisis.

Let's not call the extreme heat, flooding, and wildfires upending lives around the world "the new normal."

Call it pollution? Some do. - DJI

The phrase suggests the frequency and intensity of these disasters will stabilize, Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, told Insider.

"We're not on a plateau," Leiserowitz, who studies people's attitudes toward the climate crisis, said. "We're on a roller coaster. This is the new abnormal. And it's getting worse."

Phoenix on Wednesday had a record 20 consecutive days of temperatures reaching 110 degrees or beyond, and local officials have reported 12 heat-associated deaths. Another 55 are under investigation.

The problems aren't just in the US: An airport in Iran reported this week that the heat index — what the temperature feels like when humidity is factored in — reached 152 degrees. That's much higher than what researchers have found the human body can endure before becoming vulnerable to heatstroke and death.

Canada's wildfire season is now the country's worst on record, polluting the air breathed by millions of people in North America. Vermont residents are recovering from a "once-in-a-hundred-year" flood for the second time in a little over a decade. The ocean, which has absorbed 90% of the planet's warming from greenhouse-gas emissions, hit alarmingly high temperatures off the coast of Florida.

The way the media and politicians frame these events is important because most people around the world still don't connect their own run-ins with disasters to the climate crisis, Leiserowitz said. People also tend to gradually normalize change, in what psychologists call "shifting baselines."

"It's a strength and a weakness that we are able to get used to new conditions," he said.

In the US, it wasn't until around 2016 that personal experiences with hot days started to shift public views of the climate crisis and break through political ideology, Leiserowitz said.

In a survey conducted by Leiserowitz and his colleagues between mid-April and May 1, 44% of Americans polled agreed that they personally experienced global warming. The figure is double what it was over the past decade.

Still, the climate crisis remains psychologically distant for many people. They think it will affect "polar bears or maybe developing countries but not the United States, not my state, not my community, not my friends, not my family, not me," Leiserowitz said.

This has consequences for the institutions with the most power to combat the climate emergency: national governments and corporations, which reflect the people who run them. These institutions haven't acted fast enough to avert the crisis, climate scientists say. The delay isn't solely attributed to human psychology. Politics and profits also play a role.

But now all three of those factors are shifting, at least to some degree, in favor of climate action, Lena Moffitt, the executive director of the environmental group Evergreen Action, told Insider.

"A lot of politicians and business officials see that there is an economic benefit to taking action now," she said. "The Biden administration is investing in renewable energy and in making that technology here in the US. A lot of those investments go to red states."

ATTACHMENT NINE – From GUK

EXTREME HEATWAVE LIVE: TEXAS CITY CONFIRMS FIRST HEAT DEATH; NORTHERN HEMISPHERE BOILS IN SEVERE WEATHER

Man in Houston died in house without air conditioning; mercury in parts of Italy is close to hitting 45C as wildfires ravage Greece and Spain

July 17^th

See:

· Death Valley approaches global heat record as US reels

· People in US: has your aircon failed and could you get it fixed?

· China records its hottest ever day

LIVE Updated 5m ago

· 1h ago

Northern Hemisphere boils

· 4h ago

Typhoon Talim makes landfall in China

· 5h ago

Houston, Texas confirms first heat-related death

· 6h ago

Summary

· 6h ago

Death Valley approaches global heat record as US reels from extreme weather

· 6h ago

Wild fires rage south of Athens amid urgent pleas to evacuate

· 6h ago

Pennsylvania flash flood: five people killed and two children missing

· 7h ago

Heat warnings strengthened in Italy as temperatures in southern Europe expected to rise

· 8h ago

Hong Kong schools and stock market closed as Typhoon Talim sweeps toward China

· 9h ago

Summary

· 10h ago

China confirms a record temperature of 52.5C over weekend

· 10h ago

Italian people warned to stay indoors and keep hydrated

· 11h ago

Climate change menacing China’s ancient heritage sites

· 13h ago

How the heatwave is affecting Europe

· 15h ago

Summary

· 16h ago

Why has Australia not yet declared an El Niño?

· 16h ago

How does El Niño affect the weather?

· 17h ago

China and US taking steps to address 'common risk, threat' of climate change

· 17h ago

Heatstroke alerts issued for Japan, affecting tens of millions of people

· 17h ago

China provisionally recorded highest temperature ever

· 18h ago

California’s Death Valley sizzles as brutal heat wave continues

· 18h ago

United States special envoy on the climate visits China for talks

· 19h ago

Earth facing ‘unprecedented’ sea surface temperatures, UN agency says

· 19h ago

Firefighter dies from injuries sustained battling Canadian wildfire

· 19h ago

'Unfathomable conditions' at Persian Gulf International Airport

· 19h ago

Welcome summary

5m ago16.48 EDT

Evacuation efforts are underway in Greece, where uncontrolled fires are ravaging coastal towns near the capital of Athens, Reuters reports.

In the village of Kouvaras, a witness told Reuters at least five houses were severely damaged. In Kalyvia and Anavyssos, police helped evacuated at least 100 people and dozens of horses.

There are 81 blazes in total across the country, authorities said. The news agency further reports:

More than 200 firemen assisted by 20 soldiers, 68 fire engines, 10 aircraft and six helicopters were fighting the flames.

Coast guard boats were patrolling along the coast to help evacuate citizens if needed, and more vessels were on standby in case they needed to intervene.

Around 1,200 children in a summer camp and the residents of a rehabilitation centre were evacuated due to another wildfire burning close to the seaside resort of Loutraki, about 50 miles west of Athens, a local mayor told Greek television.

About 135 firemen with 50 fire engines, 40 soldiers and 13 aircraft had been deployed to contain that blaze which forced police to shut part of a highway and disrupted train services.

Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is currently at a leaders’ summit in Brussels, said that he was being constantly briefed over the fires.

He said: “Today was the first really tough day of this summer. It is certain that more will follow. We’ve had, we have and will have fires, which is also one of the results of the climate crisis that we experience with increased intensity,” he said.

Fires are likely to persist this week, the Greek meteorological service has warned.

1h ago15.53 EDT

Arizona senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly issued a warning on the climate crisis in an attempt to bring skeptics and the unconcerned back down to earth.

Particularly in his state, temperatures have reached 110F (43.3C) or over every day in the last two weeks.

Kelly, who has been to space four times, told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that while in space, he could see how thin the atmosphere was over the planet.

“It’s as thin as a contact lens on an eyeball. We have to do a better job taking care of it,” he said.

If the heatwave continues at this rate, Arizona will shatter its record for the amount of days where temperatures consistently reached above 110F (43.3C) by Tuesday. Currently, the record is 18 days. Temperatures are highest in the capital of Phoenix, America’s hottest city.

·

·

2h ago15.23 EDT

Northern Hemisphere boils

Temperatures continued to reach extreme highs across many parts of the northern hemisphere on Monday.

The mercury in parts of Italy is poised to hit 45C on Tuesday and wildfires raging in Greece and Spain are signalling the latest fierce warning of the effects of the climate crisis, report the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Helena Smith in Athens.

In Italy, where temperatures later in the week could push close to the European record of 48.8C, set in the Sicilian town of Floridia in August 2021, Italians were warned to brace themselves for “the most intense heatwave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time”.

As heatwaves engulfed the globe, temperatures in California’s Death Valley, often among the hottest places on Earth, approached a world record on Sunday after reaching 53.3C.

China on Sunday issued several temperature alerts, warning of 39C in southern Guangxi region and 40-45C in the partly desert region of Xinjiang, where a temperature of 52.2C was recorded in the remote Sanbao township. In Japan, 60 people were treated for heatstroke as temperatures in the country reached highs of 39.1C.

In a stark warning to world leaders earlier on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, wrote on Twitter: “In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record. And these records have already been broken a few times this year. Heatwaves put our health and lives at risk. The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening. I urge world leaders to act now.”

You can read more of this report here.

Updated at 15.22 EDT

3h ago13.56 EDT

Visitors have been flocking to Death Valley despite temperatures in the park getting close to breaching the highest levels ever recorded before.

More than 1.1 million people annually visit the desert park, which sits over a portion of the California-Nevada border west of Las Vegas. At 5,346 sq miles (13,848 sq km), it is the largest national park in the Lower 48. About one-fifth of the visitors come in June, July and August.

People have been posing for pictures in the scorching weather despite warnings over heat exposure:

Updated at 15.21 EDT

3h ago13.38 EDT

The Greek wildfires near Athens and the region are prompting some dramatic footage and images on social media. Here are some interesting tweets.

4h ago13.00 EDT

California congressman Adam Schiff has called for a push to pass clean energy laws to help mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.

Schiff wrote on Twitter: “As blistering temperatures continue to surge in California, the south-west and beyond, millions of families and workers will suffer from intense heat and dehydration. Some will lose their lives.”

·

·

4h ago12.46 EDT

Joanna Walters

Local authorities in Guangdong province, southern China, have ordered the closure of 68 coastal tourist destinations and called back 2,702 fishing vessels as Typhoon Talim hits, Reuters reports that the Xinhua news agency is stating.

The authorities have also ordered many thousands of workers on offshore fish farms in the area to be evacuated. Earlier, it was confirmed that almost a quarter of a million people had been evacuated to safety ahead of the typhoon’s landfall in China.

For our global readers, it’s worth reminding everyone that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), a federal government agency, notes that “the only difference between a hurricane and a typhoon is the location where the storm occurs.”

Hurricane season is under way in the North Atlantic the climate crisis and El Niño pattern are bringing named storms earlier and likely to make them more fierce, especially as ocean temperatures warm relatively dramatically.

Noaa notes that hurricanes and typhoons are the same weather phenomenon: tropical cyclones.

The agency adds:

Once a tropical cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher, it is then classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical cyclone, depending upon where the storm originates in the world.

In the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific, the term hurricane is used. The same type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a typhoon. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, the generic term tropical cyclone is used, regardless of the strength of the wind associated with the weather system.

·

·

Updated at 12.52 EDT

4h ago12.31 EDT

Typhoon Talim makes landfall in China

Typhoon Talim became the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year, hitting the country on Monday evening local time and prompting authorities to issue flood warnings, cancel flights and trains, and order people to stay at home, Reuters reports. The storm sideswiped Hong Kong earlier.

The news agency further reports:

Talim, the fourth typhoon of the year, made landfall at 10.20pm local time (1420 GMT) in Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, with winds near its centre clocked at a top speed of 136.8 kph (85 mph), according to Guangdong weather bureau. Winds stronger than 150 kph would put Talim in the severe typhoon category, very rare for a typhoon this early in the rainy season.

Talim is expected to move at a speed of 20 km per hour northwest and into Guangxi region early on July 18, Guangdong weather bureau added. China’s meteorological centre forecast gale force winds in seas near southern provinces and regions and exceptionally heavy rains of 250-280 mm (9.8-11 inches) on the southwestern coast of Guangxi and northern Hainan Island. Parts of Guangxi were told to brace for flash floods through Tuesday.

·

·

5h ago12.08 EDT

Houston, Texas confirms first heat-related death

Houston, Texas has just confirmed its first heat-related death.

Victor Ramos, 67, was found in his home in south-west Houston, which did not have air conditioning. He died on 24 June in hospital. Ramos’ sister Karla told local Houston news outlet KHOU that her brother Ramos’ could not afford to fix his broken AC unit since he was let go from his job in March.

In nearby Pearland, Texas, Felipe Pascaul, 46, also died from the heat on 16 June. Pascaul was pouring concrete on a construction job site when he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital but did not survive.

The news comes after Texas governor Greg Abbott approved a law in June that eliminated water breaks for construction workers mandated by cities and counties in the state.

The state has seen 14 heat-related deaths this year as of June. Last year, 306 people died in connection to the dangerously high temperatures in Texas.

Texas’s most populous city and the fourth most populous city in the US, Houston is one of many around the country, particularly in the southwest, placed on a heat advisory.

5h ago11.32 EDT

The relentless heatwave across the southern US continues to scorch Texas, with dangerous conditions.

Amid the risk to people’s health, especially those obliged to be outside in the heat, soaring demand for energy is putting strain on the system – although, as the Guardian reported late last month, renewable power sources are helping the state maintain energy reliability, contrary to some of the state’s lawmakers claims that clean energy is less reliable.

This week could break records for demand, though, with homes and business keeping their air conditioners cranked, as Reuters reports:

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power load, has said it has enough resources available to meet soaring demand.

Texas residents have worried about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 left millions without power, water and heat for days as Ercot struggled to prevent a grid collapse after the closure of an unusually large amount of generation.

Although overall US power demand is projected to ease in 2023 after hitting a record high in 2022, rising economic and population growth is expected to keep boosting electric use in “Sun Belt” states like Texas.

After setting 11 demand records last summer, Ercot forecast usage would hit 83,732 megawatts (MW) on Monday and 85,237 MW on Tuesday this week. That would be the fourth record high this summer. One megawatt can power around 1,000 US homes on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas.

6h ago10.57 EDT

Summary

· The UK government’s new plan to cope with the climate crisis has been condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods.

· South East Water has reported a pre-tax loss of nearly £75m, which it blamed in part on the cost of dealing with last year’s “extreme weather events” including the record-breaking heatwave. The water firm, which supplies 2.2 million customers, said the weather events cost it £17m.

· Five people have been killed and two children remain missing after flood waters tore through parts of south-eastern Pennsylvania over the week during the latest round of violent storms to hit the region.

· China has confirmed a record temperature of 52.2C (126F) in the north-west of the country on Sunday.

· Italian health officials intensified heat warnings as the mercury in Rome was forecast to near 40C (104F).

· California’s Death Valley, often among the hottest places on Earth, reached a near-record 52C on Sunday.

· Firefighters are battling wildfires in the Canary Islands and Greece.

· The US climate envoy, John Kerry, is in Beijing in an effort to show that the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases have renewed their focus on tackling the climate crisis.

· South Korea’s president has vowed to “completely overhaul” the country’s approach to extreme weather from climate change, as the death toll from flooding and landslides rose to 40.

· Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong on Monday as Typhoon Talim sideswiped the city and headed toward landfall on the Chinese mainland and the island province of Hainan.

· Villagers in the south-east of Athens were ordered to leave their homes on Monday as a wildfire burned nearby, Greek authorities said. On Monday, the blaze burnt quickly through brush and spread south toward the Attica region and the resorts of Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Saronida.

· Scientists have warned that a marine heatwave off the coasts of the UK and Ireland poses a serious threat to species. The Met Office has said that global sea surface temperatures in April and May reached an all-time high, and June is likely to follow suit.

·

6h ago10.46 EDT

Death Valley approaches global heat record as US reels from extreme weather

Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point on Sunday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said.

Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 128F (53.3C) on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134F (56.7C) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records. Temperatures at or above 130F (54.4C) have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley.

6h ago10.40 EDT

Wild fires rage south of Athens amid urgent pleas to evacuate

Helena Smith

Wild fires raging close to seaside resort settlements south of Athens have destroyed untold numbers of homes and cars. Over the past hour dramatic scenes have unfolded in the coastal resorts of Lagonissi, Saronida and Anavyssos as blazes fanned by high-speed winds have moved in.

Despite Greek authorities issuing precautionary evacuation orders, latest reports indicate that people have been trapped in homes in Lagonissi. Mega TV showed footage of horses and dogs trapped in a riding club in Anavyssos.

Saronida’s longtime former Mayor Petros Philippou told local media: “ The fire is continuously moving threateningly and right now it is above Saronida. People have to leave these areas immediately with care and with calm.”

Firefighters are now fighting on multiple fronts after a blaze broke out in the Kouvara area of eastern Attica earlier today. Panic-stricken Athenians, many of whom have second homes in the area, have rushed to check properties adding to traffic chaos as others flee.

Blazes have also erupted in Corinth and Boeotia with firefighting planes, helicopters and trucks deployed to the areas. Syriza, the left-wing main opposition party, said its thoughts were with all those now at risk of seeing “everything they had spent a lifetime” working [to achieve] lost to the flames. The civil protection ministry is to hold an emergency meeting with firefighters and other forces.

ATTACHMENT TEN – From GUK

THIS HEATWAVE IS A CLIMATE OMEN. BUT IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE COURSE

By Michael Mann and Susan Joy Hassol

The warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date data for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago

Wed 19 Jul 2023 06.02 EDT

Thirty years ago, the world’s nations agreed to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. But what is “dangerous climate change”? Just turn on the television, read the headlines of the morning paper or view your social media feeds. For we are watching it play out in real time this summer, more profoundly than ever before, in the form of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires. Now we know what dangerous climate change looks like. As has been said of obscenity, we know it when we see it. We’re seeing it – and it is obscene.

Consider the heatwave and floods: can we still save the planet for our children? I think we can By Gaia Vince Read more

Scorching temperatures persist across Europe, North America and Asia, as wildfires rage from Canada to Greece. The heat is as relentless as it is intense. For example, Phoenix, Arizona, has broken its record of 18 consecutive days above 110F (43.3C). Even the nights, generally relied upon as a chance to recover from the blistering days, now offer little relief: for more than a week, night-time temperatures in Phoenix have exceeded 90F (32.2C). Meanwhile, severe and deadly flooding has stricken South Korea, Japan, and the north-east United States, from Pennsylvania to Vermont.

The climate crisis – and yes, it is now a crisis – is endangering us now, where we live. Whether it’s the recurrent episodes of hazardous air quality in the east coast cities some of us call home from windblown Canadian wildfire smoke or the toll sadly now being measured in human lives from deadly nearby floods, we are witnessing the devastating and dangerous consequences of unabated human-caused warming. That is a fact.

Indeed, as you “doomscroll” on whatever social media platform you prefer these days, you might see selective images and graphs that would lead you to think Earth’s climate is spinning out of control, in a runaway feedback loop of irreversible tipping points leading us down an inescapable planetary death spiral.

But that’s not what’s happening.

The average warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date measurements for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago would happen if we continued with the business-as-usual burning of fossil fuels. Yes, there are alarming data coming in, from record-shattering loss of winter sea ice in the southern hemisphere to off-the-charts warmth in the North Atlantic with hot tub-grade waters off the Florida coast. We’ve also seen the hottest week on record for the planet as a whole this month. We can attribute blame to a combination of ongoing human-caused warming, an incipient major El Niño event and the vagaries of natural variability.

These episodes are a reminder that we can not only expect to see records broken, but shattered, if we continue burning fossil fuels and heating up the planet.

And one of the areas where observed trends truly are exceeding the predictions of climate models is in those extreme weather events we are seeing this summer. One of us has been involved in research that suggests that climate models are still not capturing some of the more subtle physical mechanisms behind persistent summer weather extremes. As the Arctic warms faster than lower latitudes, the temperature difference between the poles and tropics decreases and the jet stream – which is driven by that difference – weakens. Under certain conditions that can lead to a slow, wiggly jet stream, with amplified weather systems that get stuck in place. When weather systems stall like this, the same regions get baked or rained on day after day – precisely the sort of persistent, extreme weather events we’re experiencing this summer.

The incessant parade of heat domes, floods and tornado outbreaks this summer seems to suggest a precarious if not downright apocalyptic “new abnormal” that we now find ourselves in. And it understandably feeds the fearful impression that we’ve exceeded some sort of breaking point in our climate.

How do we reconcile that impression with the picture that emerges from the steady, rather than erratic, warming response we see in both the observations and models? The answer is that the behavior of Earth’s climate system represents a tussle between sometimes opposing mechanisms that alternatively favor stability and fragility. That constant tussle is evident in an examination of Earth’s past climate history. If the system is pushed, it responds steadily – to a point. Push too hard, however, and we risk crossing certain “tipping points”, such as the disintegration of the ice sheets and the massive sea level rise that will ultimately follow.

The only way to avoid crossing these tipping points is to stop heating up the planet. And comprehensive Earth system models show that if we stop adding carbon pollution, the warming of Earth’s surface stops soon thereafter.

So that brings us back to where we started. Yes, we have failed to prevent dangerous climate change. It is here. What remains to be seen is just how bad we’re willing to let it get. A window of opportunity remains for averting a catastrophic 1.5C/2.7F warming of the planet, beyond which we’ll see far worse consequences than anything we’ve seen so far. But that window is closing and we’re not making enough progress.

We cannot afford to give in to despair. Better to channel our energy into action, as there’s so much work to be done to prevent this crisis from escalating into a catastrophe. If the extremes of this summer fill you with fears of imminent and inevitable climate collapse, remember, it’s not game over. It’s game on.

· Michael E Mann is a professor of earth and environmental science and the director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at The University of Pennsylvania. He is author of the forthcoming book Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis

· Susan Joy Hassol is the director of Climate Communication. She publishes Quick Facts, on the links between extreme weather and climate change, and recently published a piece in Scientific American on the importance of language in communicating about climate

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – From the New York Daily News

71-YEAR-OLD MAN COLLAPSES, DIES AT DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK IN 121-DEGREE HEAT

By David Matthews Published: Jul 20, 2023 at 5:21 pm

A man died after collapsing at Death Valley National Park in California as temperatures ticked above 120 degrees.

The 71-year-old man collapsed outside the restroom at the Golden Canyon trailhead around 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday. Officials said the man was covered in sunscreen, wearing hiking clothes and a sun hat. His car was in the popular trail’s parking lot.

Park rangers arrived minutes after the man collapsed. They performed CPR and a used a defibrillator, but were unable to save him

The Inyo County Coroner identified the man as Steven Curry from Los Angeles, but a cause of death has not yet been determined.

“Heat may have been a factor in his death,” the National Parks Service said in a press release.

It’s unknown what the temperature was at the exact time of the man’s death, but the afternoon high recorded at Furnace Creek was 121 degrees.

“Actual temperatures inside Golden Canyon were likely much higher, due to canyon walls radiating the sun’s heat,” the release states.

[ Earth records hottest day ever — for 3 straight days ]

Just hours before he died, Curry spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the weather in the park.

“It’s a dry heat,” he said at Zabriskie Point, about 2 miles from the trailhead.

The incident may be the second heat-related death of the year at the park after a 65-year-old man was found dead in his car on July 3. Visitors also died in 2022 and 2021.

[ Phoenix sets new U.S. heat wave record with at least 110 degrees for 19 straight days ]

The ongoing stretch of high temperature days has brought “heat tourists” to the park who have been taking photos and videos in front of the digital thermometer at Furnace Creek.

The park encourages visitors to not hike in low elevation areas during extreme heat and to only sightsee short distances from air conditioned cars. Extreme heat also thins the air, making it much more difficult for helicopters to fly and rescue a person in distress.

ATTACHMENT TWELVE – From CBS

RECORD-BREAKING HEAT, FLOODING, WILDFIRES AND MONSOONS ARE SLAMMING THE WORLD. EXPERTS SAY IT'S ONLY BEGUN.

BY LI COHEN

UPDATED ON: JULY 19, 2023 / 11:25 AM / CBS NEWS

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Boiling heat and raging floods have taken the world by storm in recent weeks, plummeting millions of people into dangerous and deadly conditions. But it's not a temporary trip of bad luck – it's the beginning of a new and worsening reality.

The heat waves causing record temperatures, storms dumping record rain on cities and wildfires raging across thousands of acres of land are all the impact of an undeniable source: climate change. 

Preliminary data shows that the world recently had its hottest week on record, following the hottest June on record. El Niño is believed to have spawned the latest events as it comes at the onset of warmer sea surface temperatures, but experts have warned that the current situation won't suddenly vanish when El Niño departs. 

"We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024," said Christopher Hewitt, head of international climate services for the World Meteorological Organization. "This is worrying news for the planet."

In a news release last week, the WMO highlighted issues that included heat waves causing sweltering conditions in areas around the U.S. to North Africa.

extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate – is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the news release. "This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible."

And by Tuesday, the group's secretary-general, Petteri Taalas, issued new words to describe the situation: "The new normal." 

Here's what the world has faced in recent days – and why the situation is anything but normal. 

Record-breaking heat waves across the world

Heat waves are one of the deadliest hazards to emerge in extreme weather, and they're occurring on a global scale.

In Phoenix, Arizona, the heat has been so intense that the city just broke a nearly half-century-old record. On Tuesday, the city saw its 19th straight day with temperatures at or greater than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. It was also the ninth straight day of low temperatures that didn't fall below 90. 

That heat is expected to continue across much of the U.S. through at least Saturday, The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore said on "CBS Mornings" on Wednesday.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," he said. "Whether it's a dry heat or a heat that's exacerbated by the humidity, we've got all that." 

And Death Valley, which holds the world record for the highest air temperature ever measured, nearly broke that record, which was last broken on July 10, 1913, hitting 134 degrees Fahrenheit. On Sunday, the region hit a blistering 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 

But the extreme heat isn't constrained to the U.S. – Europe has been facing its own battle. 

In Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, records were broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, the European Union's earth observation service, Copernicus, said last week. The service's satellite imagery showed some areas of Spain with land surface temperatures, which measure the temperature of soil, exceeding 60 degrees Celsius – 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

And in Cyprus, temperatures are expected to remain above 104 degrees Fahrenheit through Thursday. There, a 90-year-old man died of heat stroke. Italy has also been told to prepare for "the most intense heat wave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time." 

And it's not over. Over the next two weeks, the WMO said above-normal temperatures are expected across the Mediterranean, with weekly temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term average. 

Canada's wildfires continue their record season

Only seven months into 2023, Canada has already been faced with more than 4,000 wildfires that have burned up 9.6 million hectares of land, more than 37,000 square miles. As of Thursday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported 906 active fires across the nation, more than half of which are considered "out of control." 

On July 6, the Canadian government said this season "has already been Canada's most severe on record." 

"Current projections indicate that this may continue to be a significantly challenging summer for wildfires in parts of the country," officials said, as projections continue to show "higher-than-normal fire activity" is possible for most of the country. Warm temperatures and ongoing drought are to blame, they said.

Deadly, record-breaking monsoon

India has been inundated with a Southwest monsoon that covered the entire country on July 2, India's Meteorological Department said. Last week, the capital of the country, New Delhi, was hit with the highest-single day of rain in 40 years, getting half a foot of rain in a single day. The flash floods and landslides caused by the rain have killed dozens across the country.

Water from the capital city's Yamuna River spilled over its river banks this week as its water level hit a 45-year high on Thursday at 684 feet. The previous record of 681 feet was hit in 1978. The record rain and water prompted officials to urge the 30 million people who live there to stay inside. 

On Friday, flash flood threats of varying degrees continued throughout many areas in the country. 

Record heat in the world's oceans

Copernicus said Friday that it's not just land and air experiencing extreme heat, but the oceans as well. The service found that the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have both seen record temperatures in recent months. 

Citing research institute Mercator Ocean and its own observations, the service said the western Mediterranean is seeing a "moderate" sea heatwave that "appears to be intensifying." 

"The Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly along the coasts of Southern Spain and North Africa was approximately +5°C above the reference value for the period, indicative of the escalating heatwave conditions," Copernicus said Friday.

In Florida, ocean temperatures last week approached nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with many areas seeing temperatures in the mid-90s. 

"The water is so warm you really can't cool off," National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Orrison told CBS Miami, saying the temperatures seen in the Gulf and Southwest Atlantic are 4 to 5 degrees warmer than normal. 

The data comes just a few months after researchers found that the oceans have been warming so rapidly, that it's an amount equal to the energy of five atomic bombs detonating underwater "every second for 24 hours a day for the entire year." It also comes just days after climate experts issued another warning that ocean temperatures have hit unprecedented levels that are "much higher than anything the models predicted." 

By September, NOAA believes that half of the world's oceans could be experiencing heat wave conditions. Normally, only about 10% of oceans experience such conditions, experts said. 

The future of extremes is now the present

The future of extreme weather that has the potential to devastate billions of people is no longer a far-off possibility. It's happening here and now. 

And it is not a "new normal" as Taalas said. What is currently being experienced is only the beginning of what the planet can expect to see. 

A wide range of experts – from global agencies to national organizations and individual climate experts – have been warning for decades of the impact that warming global temperatures could have on the state of the planet. As temperatures continue to rise across the world – mostly from the burning of fossil fuels – extreme weather will only intensify. 

The impact of such extremes is hard to miss. 

Major cities like Chicago are seeing ground temperatures so warm due to the rising air temperatures that it's causing buildings to sink as underground materials shift. The heat also poses deadly consequences, with officials worldwide warning people to avoid extended periods of exposure. Extreme storms that swept through the Northeast last weekend have left cities totally isolated from floodwaters and businesses and homes completely destroyed. The smoke from Canada's wildfires has had harsh ramifications for air quality across the U.S., even going as far as Europe.

"It's getting worse and worse," Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist and professor at Reading University, told Reuters, saying that the way to prevent extreme weather from getting even worse is by drastically – and quickly – reducing greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, primarily emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, work to trap heat within the atmosphere, amplifying global temperatures.

But it's important to realize, she added, that doing so will only prevent the absolute worst outcomes. 

"We must realize we are locked into some of these changes now and we will continue to see records broken," she said. 

ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – From the Washington Post

FLORIDA OCEAN TEMPERATURES AT ‘DOWNRIGHT SHOCKING’ LEVELS

The extreme heat around Florida is further intensifying the state’s ongoing heat wave and could make hurricanes worse

By Dan Stillman Updated July 10, 2023 at 2:16 p.m. EDT|Published July 10, 2023 at 2:06 p.m. EDT

Not only is Florida sizzling in record-crushing heat, but the ocean waters that surround it are scorching, as well. The unprecedented ocean warmth around the state — connected to historically warm oceans worldwide — is further intensifying its heat wave and stressing coral reefs, with conditions that could end up strengthening hurricanes.

Live weather updates: Extreme heat waves to hit Florida, Texas and Southwest

Much of Florida is seeing its warmest year on record, with temperatures running 3 to 5 degrees above normal. While some locations have been setting records since the beginning of the year, the hottest weather has come with an intense heat dome cooking the Sunshine State in recent weeks. That heat dome has made coastal waters extremely warm, including “downright shocking” temperatures of 92 to 96 degrees in the Florida Keys, meteorologist and journalist Bob Henson said Sunday in a tweet.

“That’s boiling for them! More typically it would be in the upper 80s,” tweeted Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist and climate specialist at WFLA-TV in Tampa.

The temperatures are so high that they are off the scale of the color contours on some weather maps.

The warmth registers as a Category 3 out of 5 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine heat wave scale. NOAA defines a marine heat wave as a period with persistent and unusually warm ocean temperatures, “which can have significant impacts on marine life as well as coastal communities and economies.” The agency describes Category 3 as “severe.”

Such warm water temperatures “would be impressive any time of year, but they’re occurring when the water would already be rather warm, bringing it up to bona fide bathtub conditions that we rarely see,” Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami and hurricane expert for Capital Weather Gang, said in an email.

The toasty waters are influencing temperatures on land by raising the humidity, which makes it harder for temperatures to cool off at night. Numerous records for temperatures and heat indexes have been broken since mid-June, and the heat wave is expected to continue for at least a week. According to McNoldy, Miami’s heat index soared to 110 degrees on Monday and has reached at least 100 on 30 straight days.

Miami, Tampa and Fort Myers are expected to hit a heat index of 105 or higher on each of the next seven days, according to the The Washington Post’s heat tracker.

“It’s an astounding, prolonged heat wave even for a place that’s no stranger to sultry weather,” said McNoldy, who also cautioned that the warm waters could make tropical storms or hurricanes stronger. “It’s not something we like to see near land simply because it would allow a storm to maintain a high intensity right up to landfall or rapidly intensify as it approaches landfall.”

Hurricane forecasters have recently upped their predictions for the season in response to the rising ocean temperatures.

The marine heat wave is also causing coral bleaching, which can leave corals vulnerable to deadly diseases. NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch has recorded an “Alert Level 1” off the coast of South Florida. That is the second-highest level, described by NOAA as “significant bleaching likely.”

Berardelli credited unusually light winds since late May, in addition to the heat dome, as contributing to the warming sea surface: “Typically Florida sees a nice breeze from the [southeast] but this summer pattern has been resilient,” he tweeted. “The water is warming under this stagnation!” Light winds can lead to stagnant waters, which prevent deeper, colder water from churning to the top, allowing the ocean surface to heat more quickly.

The hot waters around Florida are connected to record-breaking ocean heat worldwide. About 40 percent of the world’s oceans are facing a marine heat wave, NOAA reported. That is the highest percentage on record, and it could reach 50 percent by September.

Scientists also attribute the widespread heat of the global ocean waters to human-caused climate change, which has helped boost the oceans to record-warm levels.

More on extreme heat

Our warming climate: As a heat dome intensifies in Arizona, follow our live updates on the heat wave moving across the southern U.S. It’s not just you —summers in the U.S. are getting hotter. Look up your city to see your extreme heat risk with our tracker. Take a look at what extreme heat does to the human body.

How to stay safe: It’s better to prepare for extreme heat before you’re in it. Here’s our guide to bracing for a heat wave, tips for staying cool even if you don’t have air conditioning, and what to know about animal safety during extreme heat. Traveling during a heat wave isn’t ideal, but here’s what to do if you are.

Understanding the science: Sprawling zones of high pressure called heat domes fuel heat waves. Here’s how they work. You can also read more about the link between weather disasters and climate change, and how leaders in the U.S. and Europe are responding to heat.

ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – From GUK

‘Hell on earth’: Phoenix’s extreme heatwave tests the limits of survival

Residents of Arizona’s capital are used to scorching heat, but the summer’s unyielding sizzle is making it harder to live there

Gabrielle Canon in Phoenix, Arizona

@GabrielleCanon

Fri 14 Jul 2023 10.00 EDT

Arizona’s capital city is nicknamed “Valley of the Sun”, and residents are used to scorching heat. But by day 12 of a vicious heatwave that’s sent temperatures soaring into triple digits, with little relief overnight, limits are being tested – and it’s only going to get hotter.

The city is on track to break a grim milestone. If the heatwave continues as predicted, Phoenix will have endured an 18-day stretch of temperatures above 110F (43.3C) by Tuesday.

“Phoenix has always been hot,” said Michelle Litwin, the city’s heat response program manager. But this is something else.

Litwin and her team are tasked with aiding the city’s most vulnerable during the city’s brutally hot months, a season that now stretches from April to September. On Wednesday, she and a crew of city workers and volunteers set up a booth at a sprawling homeless encampment to hand out cold water bottles, hygiene kits and other resources that, for those living on the streets, could potentially mean the difference between life and death.

“This is Arizona’s natural disaster,” Litwin said. “We might have flash floods but heat is our issue.”

The city was the first in the country to fund a dedicated heat department in 2021, which has launched dozens of programs with ambitious goals, including planting more trees, opening cooling centers and ensuring people across the region have working air-conditioning units.

Despite the work, the numbers of heat-related fatalities have swelled dramatically in recent years, culminating in a record 425 lives lost last year. The climate crisis is upping the stakes, with temperatures only expected to surge further in the coming years. Staying one step ahead has proved a difficult – and deadly – challenge.

More people are making Phoenix their home even as the risks rise and a growing population is putting strain on housing and water – two resources that help dull the strain of stifling heat – both resources in short supply.

Heat, a quiet killer and one of the world’s deadliest disasters, takes an unequal toll. Fifty-six percent of those who succumbed to the heat last year in Maricopa county, where Phoenix is located, were unhoused. Of the people who died indoors, all of them were living in homes and buildings that weren’t cooled. In 78% of cases, AC units were present but not functioning.

The county’s statistics also show the disparities run along racial lines. Only 6.8% of Maricopa’s population is Black, but 11% of heat-related fatalities were Black people. Indigenous people, who accounted for 8% of deaths, are only 2.9% of the population.

At the homeless encampment, a line is forming at a booth where Arizona State University nursing students have joined the city workers to distribute coolers full of water bottles, wet towels and information to the hundreds of tents sprawling along the streets just steps from the city center.

It’s early afternoon and the cloud cover has burned off, leaving sunlight to cook the sidewalks which can reach temperatures of 160F (71.1C). Shade is sparse and the stale air is stifling as nurses cart wagons of refillable water jugs through the tents, offering them to inhabitants. They run out quickly.

Michael Shaw, a 49-year-old encampment resident, rings a soaking towel over his head and neck, lamenting the weekend heat that lies ahead. He knows people who have already lost their lives to the extreme conditions and is concerned their numbers will grow. Before securing his own stash of water, he alerted the workers that a woman in a nearby tent had suffered a stroke and was in need of help.

“It is hell on earth,” Shaw said. “I am pretty tough but these last few days are everything I can handle.” Life on this block is filled with danger and violence and the lure of drugs to dull the pain is constant, only adding to the strain. “I have been robbed and mugged. But the heat,” he said, “– it’s the killer.”

The city has been ordered to clear this area, known as “The Zone,” and officials have asked for more time to ensure people living here are provided with somewhere to go. There are shelter spots available and city-run cooling centers offer a reprieve. But it’s unclear how many will get a bed inside at the end of the day; for now, at least, they will have access to essential hydration.

‘Effects of climate change are here’

By the afternoon it is approaching 110F (43.3C). But Pomello Park on the other side of town, where trees sway over verdant lawns that line quiet cul-de-sacs, feels a world apart.

Greenery makes a big difference in how a person fares during extreme heat. Shade can make temperatures feel up to 30 degrees cooler, according to Lora Martens, the urban tree program manager for the city’s office of heat response and mitigation. She is leading the effort to spread the shade to more exposed areas of the city, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“The parts of our city that need trees the most are the hardest places to plant them,” she said. Trees struggle to thrive in the hottest areas, especially when landscapes are encased in concrete. The city is also having to balance the increasing need for shade with the decreasing availability of water. It had hoped to hit its goal of 25% canopy coverage, but the drought is making it harder. “We are reassessing that goal with a lighter water future,” Martens said.

Such realities have forced a difficult reckoning with what’s possible as global heating pushes Arizona into uncharted territory. “The effects of climate change are here,” she said. “We are having conversations no one has had before.”

For now, that means two starkly different realities for the residents of Phoenix.

As the sun sinks in the sky on Wednesday evening, some emerge from air-conditioned homes to walk their dogs, taking advantage of temperatures hovering just under 100F (37.7C).

“This is just our winter,” said Shawn Bohl, out with his wife Debbie after a day spent inside. Their dog Wally pulled impatiently on the leash as they explained that, like other parts of the country forced inside during the most frigid months, the heat is part of life in Phoenix. The weather doesn’t feel as extreme to them as it might seem to others.

Still, the city will not shut down during the sizzling summers. Trash has to be picked up. Construction continues through the midday heat.

For those who have to live or work outside, the weeks ahead will be grueling.

“Here we work the whole year,” says landscaper Crispin Allejah, as he wipes sweat from his face, “and you need work.” Tending to a patch of grass in a Whole Foods parking lot, Allejah is clad in a long-sleeve shirt to protect his skin from the sun, along with heavy jeans, kneepads and boots.

“You have to keep yourself moving,” he said. “If you stand in one place it is going to be too hot.” He also has learned not to drink too much water too fast. “You have to drink water but if you drink too much, sometimes you throw up.”

Amazon delivery driver Gabe Castle has developed strategies for surviving long, hot work days – particularly on Wednesday, when he was in the thick of Amazon prime day with a huge volume of packages to deliver.

In his van he’s packed a cooler with 15 ready-to-drink water bottles, six frozen water bottles and five Gatorades. He fills every other bottle with a packet of electrolyte mix. He stashes one of two small towels on ice – and switches them out between deliveries to drape over his head and neck.

“This is my AC,” he said, gesturing to the material around his shoulders as sweat and water darken his blue shirt.

He’s used to working in such conditions, but admits it’s getting harder. “You never really get acclimated to the sweltering heat,” he said. “But you get to the point where it’s easier to combat it.”

Castle is concerned about the future. Life in Phoenix has brought the climate crisis into sharper focus but he fears others aren’t heeding the call.

“We have to do what we can to make sure these things are dealt with in a timely fashion, but we are behind the 8 ball,” he said. He looked quickly at his clock – his break was over and it was time to go back to work.

“I really hope we can figure this out soon,” he said, as he walked back toward his van. “Before our planet just totally goes up in a fireball.”

ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – From Time

HOW CITIES CAN GET RELIEF FROM EXTREME HEAT

BY JEFFREY KLUGER  JULY 12, 2023 3:56 PM EDT

One of the last places in the country you wanted to be on July 11 was Houston, Texas. Roasting under a heat dome, Houston topped 105ºF that day, continuing a punishing trend that has already seen the city hit over 90°F on 46 days in 2023.

Houston isn’t alone. Record highs have been reached this summer in Tucson, Ariz.; Tampa, Fla.; Corpus Christi, Texas.; and both Stockton and Sacramento, Calif., which on July 1 posted twin readings of 109ºF. Climate change is surely playing a role in the rise of such incinerating heat, but it is no coincidence either that the greatest suffering has been endured not in the outlying suburbs, exurbs, or countryside, but in city centers, characterized by what experts call urban heat islands.

Strip away natural tree cover and other foliage; lay down asphalt parking lots and ribbons of highway; construct buildings tall enough to cut off natural wind flow—and you create urban ovens, which absorb heat during the day and slowly radiate it back out at night. Even after sundown, there is no relief to be found.

On average, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cities range from one to seven degrees hotter than the countryside during the day and two to five degrees hotter at night. And that’s nothing compared to the differences within cities themselves, some parts of which are planted with tree cover and parkland, and others of which are denuded of green, and encased in asphalt and concrete.

“In some studies,” says Hunter Jones, program manager of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “we’re finding that different parts of the same city have temperature disparities of up to 20 degrees.”

Houston is a case study. Only 18% of the city has any appreciable tree cover, and not all Houstonians get their share: There is a 14% discrepancy between the green cover in wealthier parts of the city compared to poorer ones. To fix this, Houston aims to plant no fewer than 4.6 million trees by 2030.

Until then, to cope with the current heat wave, Houston has implemented its heat emergency plan opening 22 cooling centers (such as libraries, YMCAs, and community centers); urging the use of some two dozen city pools; warning residents about the importance of staying hydrated and avoiding caffeine and alcohol, which cause dehydration; and encouraging the elderly, the young, and anyone with a chronic disease to stay inside air-conditioned buildings between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

These efforts may help in the short-term, but more can be done by cities like Houston to combat the heat island effect. The first step for many cities, Jones says, is planting trees and establishing parks wherever possible. Reflective rooftops can reduce the amount of heat buildings absorb during the day. And coating concrete and asphalt surfaces with titanium dioxide—which is also found in sunscreen—can help keep their temperature down.

“There are a variety of other coatings too that have been developed that can reflect a lot of that [solar] energy,” says Jones. In some cases, merely painting streets a reflective shade of gray can help as well.

To help better understand how heat is affecting cities the federal government has been studying the heat island problem. Since 2017, NOAA has been conducting a citizen-scientist heat island mapping campaign, under which volunteers with heat sensors on their cars or bicycles travel through their neighborhoods in the morning, afternoon, and evening, recording location and temperature readings and sending them back to NOAA for collation and eventual remedial action. This year, the campaign is taking place in 15 different cities across 14 states; since 2017, more than 60 cities have been mapped.

“This has been a really fantastic opportunity to assist communities in collecting temperature and humidity data,” says Jones. “We then use machine learning to generate maps to show them where the intensity and the most severe heating is.”

The problem of urban heat islands, however, is not going away any time soon—and with 56% of the human population living in cities, it affects the majority of us. Curbing climate change is the ultimate, long-term, solution. Until that happens, adapting is the answer to the mess we’ve made—and suffering is the price.

ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – From Reuters

ITALIAN FARMER BATTLES FROST, FLOODS, HEAT AND HAIL IN EPIC YEAR

By Claudia Greco

July 20, 202312:55 PM EDTUpdated 4 hours ago

FORLI, Italy, July 20 (Reuters) - Farmer Andrea Ferrini is on the frontline of climate change in Italy and it is hurting.

First his fruit and corn crops in northern Italy withered in a hard frost, then they were hit by torrential rains and record flooding, followed by an exceptional heatwave and finally hail storms.

"It has certainly been a disastrous year," said Ferrini. "Making money from my farm is becoming difficult with this changing climate. Even planning for future years is becoming really challenging."

Ferrini, 52, has owned a farm in the fertile Emilia-Romagna region since 2003. He has 15 hectares (37 acres) of vines and orchards, which produce kiwi and peaches, and also grows corn.

In a normal year he produces around 1,000 quintals (100,000 kg) of fruit and grapes, but this year he expects to harvest no more than 200-300 quintals.

"I am discouraged, but I am not giving up," he said, bowing his head as pent up emotions swell.

His troubles in 2023 started with a rare frost in April that halved production. The following month, rains and floods swept the region, killing 15 people, causing billions of euros' worth of damage and hitting agriculture particularly hard.

According to the Coldiretti agricultural association, more than 5,000 farms were left under water in the region, which accounts for a third of Italy's fruit harvest, including Ferrini's smallholding.

"The flood meant that the plants, which were in the midst of a vegetative recovery (from the cold), suffered water stress and went into crisis," Ferrini said.

Then came the heat, with record temperatures registered in many areas of Italy this past week.

"We are being hit hard by the heatwave which is putting the plants under strain. This is also because temperatures at night are not falling below 24 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit), which does not allow plants to grow properly," he said.

A severe hailstorm proved the final blow for much of his fragile crop.

"The climate is overheating. We have a very warm sea and every time there is a cold weather front, we have thunderstorms, strong winds, hailstorms and these are becoming more and more frequent in the Po Valley," he said.

Scientists have long warned that climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions mainly from burning fossil fuels, will make heatwaves more frequent, severe and deadly.

Ferrini said farmers like him would have to adapt to survive, creating more resilient crops and developing new water management techniques to face up to the repeated heatwaves.

But he acknowledged it was an uphill battle.

"A farmer prepares all year round for the harvest and then sees his crop destroyed in just a few minutes or a few hours. That is a big, emotional blow," he said.

ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN – From Reuters

EUROPE BATTLES HEAT AND FIRES; SWELTERING TEMPERATURES SCORCH CHINA, US

By Crispian Balmer and Ryan Woo July 19, 2023 4:46 PM EDT Updated 18 hours ago

ROME/BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) - Italy put 23 cities on red alert as it reckoned with another day of scorching temperatures on Wednesday, with no sign of relief from the wave of extreme heat, wildfires and flooding that has wreaked havoc from the United States to China.

The heat wave has hit southern Europe during the peak summer tourist season, breaking records - including in Rome - and bringing warnings about an increased risk of deaths.

Wildfires burned for a third day west of the Greek capital, Athens, and firefighters raced to keep flames away from coastal refineries.

Fanned by erratic winds, the fires have gutted dozens of homes, forced hundreds of people to flee and blanketed the area in thick smoke. Temperatures could climb to 43 Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, forecasters said.

Extreme weather was also disrupting life for millions of Americans. A dangerous heat wave was holding an area stretching from Southern California to the Deep South in its grip, bringing the city of Phoenix its 20th straight day with temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Calvin lashed Hawaii, raising the potential for flash flooding and dangerous surf on the Big Island.

In Texas, at least nine inmates in prisons without air conditioning have suffered fatal heart attacks during the extreme heat this summer, the Texas Tribune newspaper reported. Another 14 have died during periods of extreme heat due to unknown causes.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson said preliminary findings of the deaths indicate that heat was not a factor in the fatalities. Nearly 70 of the 100 prisons in Texas are not fully air conditioned.

TEMPERATURES SOAR IN CHINA, ITALY

In China, which was hosting U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for talks, tourists defied the heat to visit a giant thermometer showing surface temperatures of 80 Celsius (176 Fahrenheit).

In Beijing, which set a new record as temperatures remained above 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) for the 28th day in a row, Kerry expressed hope that cooperation to combat global warming could redefine troubled ties between the two superpowers, both among the top polluters.

Temperatures remained high across much of Italy on Wednesday, where the health ministry said it would activate an information hotline and teams of mobile health workers visited the elderly in Rome.

"These people are afraid they won't make it, they are afraid they can't go out," said Claudio Consoli, a doctor and director of a health unit.

Carmaker Stellantis (STLAM.MI) said it was monitoring the situation at its Pomigliano plant near Naples on Wednesday, after temporarily halting work on one production line the day before when temperatures peaked.

Workers at battery-maker Magneti Marelli threatened an 8-hour strike at their central Italian plant in Sulmona. A joint statement by the unions said "asphyxiating heat is putting at risk the lives of workers".

While the heat wave appears to be subsiding in Spain, residents in Greece were left surveying the wreckage of their homes after the wildfires.

"Everything burned, everything. I will throw it all," said Abbram Paroutsidis, 65.

Scientists have long warned that climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions mainly from burning fossil fuels, will make heat waves more frequent, severe and deadly and have called on governments to drastically reduce emissions.

In Germany, the heat wave sparked a discussion on whether workplaces should introduce siestas for workers.

"While the current heat wave is expected to last until around 26 July, another period of extreme temperatures may follow if the heat dome persists," said Florian Pappenberger, Director of Forecasts at ECMWF.

HEAT AND FLOODS IN ASIA

In South Korea, heavy rain has pummelled central and southern regions since last week. Fourteen deaths occurred in an underpass in the city of Cheongju, where more than a dozen vehicles were submerged on Saturday when a river levee collapsed. In the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, 22 people died, many from landslides and swirling torrents.

In northern India, flash floods, landslides and accidents related to heavy rainfall have killed more than 100 people since the onset of the monsoon season on June 1, where rainfall is 41% above average.

The Yamuna River reached the compound walls of the Taj Mahal in Agra for the first time in 45 years, submerging several other historical monuments, and flooded parts of the Indian capital.

The Brahmaputra River, which runs through India's Assam state, burst its banks this month, engulfing almost half of the Kaziranga National Park - home to the rare one-horned rhino - in waist deep water.

A wall collapse from monsoon rains killed at least 11 construction workers in neighboring Pakistan.

Iraq's southern Basra governorate, with a population of around 4 million, said government work would be suspended on Thursday as temperatures hit 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). In Iraq's northern city of Mosul, farmers said crops were failing due to heat and drought.

The unprecedented temperatures have added new urgency for nations around the globe to tackle climate change. With the world's two biggest economies at odds over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan, Kerry told Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng on Wednesday that climate change must be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues.

"It is a universal threat to everybody on the planet and requires the largest nations in the world, the largest economies in the world, the largest emitters in the world, to come together in order to do work not just for ourselves, but for all mankind," Kerry told Han.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Giselda Vagnoni, Renee Maltezou, Emma Pinedo, Inti Landauro, Corina Pons, Ryan Woo, Valerie Vocovici, Sakshi Dayal, Hyonhee Shin, Sarah Marsh, Gavin Jones, Timour Azhari, Khalid Al-Mousily, Kate Abnett; Writing by John Geddie and Matthias Williams; Editing by Stephen Coates, Janet Lawrence, Aurora Ellisa and Sandra Maler

ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN– From the Washington Post

AS THE WORLD SIZZLES, CHINA SAYS IT WILL DEAL WITH CLIMATE ITS OWN WAY

By Christian Shepherd, Emily Rauhala and Chris Mooney Updated July 19, 2023 at 12:26 p.m. EDT|Published July 19, 2023 at 7:07 a.m. EDT

As parts of the Northern Hemisphere reach heat close to the limits of human survival, Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared in remarks reported Wednesday that Beijing alone will decide how — and how quickly — it addresses climate change.

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Xi’s comments to top Communist Party officials, which came as U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry wrapped up three days of talks with his Chinese counterpart, laid bare the challenge the world faces in curbing planet-warming pollution that is fueling heat waves across three continents. China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, and approved the construction of dozens of coal plants last year even as it added more renewable power.

China would pursue its commitments “unswervingly,” but the pace of such efforts “should and must be” determined without outside interference, Xi said late Tuesday. Xi’s approach marked a break from the 2015 Paris climate accord, where a Chinese-U.S. agreement paved the way for the international goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

The effect of heat-trapping gases has reverberated across the globe in recent weeks, as historic heat waves have enveloped China, southern Europe, the Middle East and North America and massive wildfires have incinerated forests from Canada to Greece. Rising average temperatures intensified by the El Niño climate pattern put 2023 well on course to be the hottest year since humanity started keeping track.

The heat index reached 152 degrees in the Middle East — nearly at the limit for human survival

Speaking to reporters in a phone call Wednesday, Kerry described his talks with Chinese officials as “very cordial, very direct, and, I think, very productive,” but he acknowledged that they did not produce a significant breakthrough. The meetings marked the first time in a year that the two sides had met.

“We’re here to break new ground because we think that’s essential,” Kerry said. “But we had a very extensive set of frank conversations and realized it’s going to take a little bit more work to break the new ground.”

Kerry said the ongoing global heat wave has influenced the talks. “I think the intensity and sense of urgency has grown for everybody. If we don’t break new ground, it’s going to be even harder to be able to tame the monster that has been created in terms of the climate crisis. So we have our work cut out for us.”

Still, Beijing made it clear that domestic concerns would shape its approach to energy. China’s world-leading emissions totaled 11.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2022, according to the Global Carbon Project, a decline of less than 1 percent from 2021 levels.

Xi’s message — delivered at the same time Kerry was in town — was no coincidence, according to Li Shuo, a senior policy adviser for Greenpeace East Asia. Xi was showing that “China will decide its own path in achieving carbon goals and will not be ordered about by others,” he said.

Climate negotiations between the two countries, once a rare bright spot in a fraught relationship, have increasingly been undermined by tensions over trade, technology and human rights. Kerry spent a 12-hour day with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, on Monday. When he saw Vice Premier Han Zheng on Wednesday, Kerry called for climate to be a “free-standing” issue, kept separate from the broader bilateral acrimony.

But many Chinese experts framed the visit as being part of a tentative diplomatic reset, following trips by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, rather than a breakthrough in climate negotiations.

John Kerry hails China’s ‘incredible job’ on renewables, warns on coal

China has bristled at a shift in the Biden administration’s climate approach, in which talks are supplemented by more coercive measures to push China to move faster, like tariffs on high-emission steel and aluminum imports.

The United States was “ignoring China’s contributions and achievements in reducing emissions and blindly pressures China to make unrealistic commitments,” Chen Ying, a researcher at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with local media.

But it isn’t just pressure from the United States that is compelling China to act.

Flash floods, sudden cold snaps and other deadly extreme weather events in recent years have raised public awareness in China of the dangers of a warming atmosphere. The government has responded with promises to improve warning systems and disaster response mechanisms to protect livelihoods, the economy and even precious historical artifacts during future crises.

But people in China are feeling the extremes this summer. Temperatures in northern parts of the country have reached searing heights in recent weeks, even as torrential rainfall and typhoons batter its southeastern shores.

The human body is remarkably resilient to heat, but the combination of heat and humidity (called the wet bulb temperature) can make it harder — or impossible — to cool down. Here’s what extreme heat does to the body, and how some parts of the world could become too hot for humans to survive.

Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard.

When there’s a heat wave, there are precautions you can take. There are foods you can eat (and should avoid) to help keep cool. Here’s how to know if it’s too hot to exercise, or too hot to take your dog for a walk.

A record high of 52.2 degrees Celsius (126 Fahrenheit) was recorded Sunday in a small township in the Turpan Depression, a stretch of desert in the northwest that sinks as low as 150 meters below sea level. At the opposite end of the country, southeastern Guangxi province issued a red alert for flooding and landslides on Tuesday as Typhoon Talim made its way inland.

Chinese officials have focused on softening the impact of extreme weather, rather than cutting emissions, even if it means burning more fossil fuels.

After last summer’s — also record-breaking — heat wave dried up reservoirs and caused power shortages from idled hydropower stations, the government has turned to coal to ensure the same doesn’t happen this year. Local authorities approved more coal power plants in 2022 than in any year since 2015.

Ensuring power supply during peak summer demand affected the welfare of every family, another vice premier, Ding Xuexiang, told one of China’s largest power providers over the weekend.

To keep the air conditioning on, providers like CHN Energy, one of the world’s largest generators of coal-fired power, have been setting daily records for supply, the Global Times, a state-run newspaper, reported on Monday.

The extreme heat seen around the world right now still pales in comparison to what could happen even if we limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, said Bill Hare, the CEO of Climate Analytics, which analyzes the global emissions picture and its consequences.

“We’re at 1.2 degree warming, and we know that certain kinds of heat extremes could increase in intensity by another 30 to 40 percent,” Hare said. The picture only gets worse from there.

The world is still on a trajectory for rising temperatures since global emissions have arguably flattened in recent years, but have not yet shown any clear decline. This means that every year continues to further fill the “bathtub” that is one of experts’ favorite metaphors for the atmosphere as it continues to take on our pollution.

“We are not only not draining the tub, but we’re continuing to fill it, pretty much at the same pace as we have been,” said Kate Larsen, a partner at the Rhodium Group, a research firm that tracks and models global emissions.

“Barring any major fundamental changes, we’re just adding more emissions,” Larsen said. “And nothing on the horizon, whether it’s the U.S.-China agreement or the COP, really changes that.”

Countries’ current promises under the Paris agreement would push the Earth well past 2 degrees Celsius of warming, according to Rhodium data. Even current “net zero” pledges added on top of that only take the world back to 1990 levels of emissions by 2050, Larsen noted.

Limiting warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius would require much sharper cuts. Emissions have declined in some parts of the world, like the United States and European Union, in recent years, but they continue to rise in others.

Lawmakers in Europe, hoping to take a break from the challenges of the war in Ukraine with the cherished tradition of the mid-July vacation, were met with the hellish temperatures of another heat wave that served as a scorching reminder that the climate crisis does not take a summer holiday. The latest heat wave there has already notched temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) in parts of Spain, France, Italy and Greece. In Sicily, the temperature was as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.3 Celsius).

Some of Brussels’s ambitious climate plans, however, are strongly opposed by conservatives in the European Union in a sign that the bloc remains split on how, exactly, to proceed. More than 61,000 people died in heat waves across Europe last year, according to a recent study published by Nature Medicine. A study in published in May projected that the chance of what were once rare heat waves in Europe will rise as the climate warms.

And in Canada, where wildfires have forced a record number of people from their homes, blanketed cities from coast to coast in a haze of toxic smoke and charred an unprecedented 27 million acres, it has not yet shifted the foundations of the climate debate in a nation that’s home to the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves.

In May, climate change was barely, if at all, mentioned during a provincial election in oil-rich Alberta, even as massive wildfires threatened oil and gas operations and prompted candidates to temporarily suspend their campaigns. After her election, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has continued to attack Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate policies, as has Trudeau’s main political rival, federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.

Trudeau, who came to power in 2015 vowing more aggressive action on climate change, has also faced criticism for not moving fast enough to reduce emissions and for buying the TransMountain oil pipeline five years ago.

Kathryn Harrison, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, predicted that this summer’s extreme weather “will surely have an impact on Canadians’ awareness of the urgency of climate change.”

But she said that “humans seem to have an amazing ability to return to business as usual after an emergency passes.” Two years ago, more than 600 people in British Columbia died during a heat dome, Harrison noted, but “it often feels like my fellow British Columbians just moved on.”

ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – From Time

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAT STRESS, EXHAUSTION, AND STROKE

BY ARYN BAKER JULY 18, 2023 12:58 PM EDT

The terminology around heat injuries and illness is often confusing. As extreme heat warnings sweep the U.S., here is what you need to know about heat stress, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.

A 90°F-day might be perfect for the beach. But once you start working your body, whether it’s mowing the lawn, going for a hike, or sprinting to catch the bus, your metabolism ramps up, burning fuel and raising your body’s core temperature. Your heart compensates by pumping blood away from your overheated organs to your skin, where dilating blood vessels can dissipate the heat with the help of evaporating sweat. If you are dehydrated and can no longer sweat, if it’s humid and the sweat can’t evaporate, or if it is simply too hot for human adaptation, the process breaks down, leading to heat injuries and illnesses..

Heat Stress

Heat Stress is a catch-all phrase that generally refers to any negative outcomes from doing activity in the heat. Symptoms, from heat rash to cramps, dizzy spells, and fainting, are early warning signs that the body’s self-cooling mechanism is overwhelmed. If unaddressed, heat stress can lead to more severe consequences, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

People suffering from heat stress should stop any activity, move to a cooler, shaded environment, and drink water or clear juice in slow sips. Cramps usually occur when the body has sweated too much, depleting water and electrolyte levels. Gatorade, Pedialyte, or other sports drinks can help replace lost fluids and electrolytes, but energy drinks should be avoided—the extra caffeine leads to greater dehydration. If the cramps do not subside within an hour, or the patient has heart problems or is on a low sodium diet, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends calling a medical professional.

Read more: How Extreme Heat Impacts Your Brain and Mental Health

Heat Exhaustion

When the body has lost too much water and electrolytes due to excessive sweating, heat exhaustion can set in. Symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, fainting, slurred speech, physical weakness, a bad headache, irritability, clammy skin, and an elevated body temperature. Repeated incidents of heat exhaustion can also lead to organ damage, particularly for the kidneys. Severe heat exhaustion can bring on rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissues that can cause irregular heart rhythms, seizures, and acute kidney damage.

Victims of apparent heat exhaustion should be immediately moved to a cool—air conditioned if possible—area, and encouraged to take small, frequent sips of cool liquids. Call 911 if the person cannot be taken to a medical clinic or emergency room. Remove shoes, socks, and any restrictive or heavy clothing, and bathe the head, face, neck, and wrists with water or cold compresses.

Heat Stroke

Heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness. It is triggered when the body is no longer capable of temperature regulation, and the core body temperature exceeds 104°F. The body will stop sweating as basic functions shut down, and core temperature can go as high as 108°F within 10-15 minutes. Other symptoms can include a loss of consciousness, seizures, or delirium. If the victim doesn’t receive immediate medical attention, which can include a cold IV drip, permanent disability or death is likely to come within a few hours.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY – From Time

HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOME COOL IN EXTREME HEAT

BY SOLCYRE BURGA JULY 19, 2023 3:05 PM EDT

Global temperatures have reached alarmingly high levels across the U.S., Europe, and Asia as heat waves set record highs this week.

Parts of European countries including most of Italy, eastern Croatia, southern Spain, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro are under red alert, the European Union’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, as of July 18, Phoenix had experienced 19 consecutive days of 110°F temperatures or higher. And Beijing is also experiencing a record stretch of 95°F heat.

The extreme heat comes as weather phenomenon El Niño, which occurs every two to seven years and brings higher global temperatures along the northern hemisphere, takes place. It also arrives at a critical point in global warming.

“Extreme heat events in the United States are already occurring and expected to become more common, more severe and longer lasting due to climate change,” said Claudia Brown, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some scientists say that 2023 could be the warmest year on record, posing a problem for millions across Europe where air-conditioning is relatively rare. Only about 3% of homes in Germany and less than 5% of homes in France have an air cooling unit in their home, according to the Washington Post. That’s compared to 90% of homes in the U.S.

TIME spoke to experts about how to keep cool in your home. Here’s what they said.

Block out sunlight

The main thing to do when attempting to keep your house cool, is to block sunlight from entering the home.

“What you want to do is stop the heat before it gets through the glass or any other wall,” David Wright, a solar environmental architect, says. “You can use outside shading techniques or shades that go up and down and block sunlight at certain times of the day, or horizontal shading devices like arbors, trellises, and awnings.” Any sort of plant life that can absorb sunlight before it hits a wall is helpful, he adds.

While blocking sunlight and heat from the outside before it has a chance to enter the home—such as by having trees around your house—is the most efficient way to keep your home cool, there are tricks for people living in apartments too, says Wright, pointing to blackout curtains as a good option.

“If sunlight is allowed to come through glass into the house, once it gets inside and strikes an object,” explains Wright, “the wavelength goes from long wave to shortwave. And the short waves don’t go back through the glass. That’s what traps heat.”

Homeowners can opt for insulated glass or low-e glass—which has a thin coating that reflects heat—to prevent heat from entering the home. Applying a tint to windows in your home may also be beneficial, Miami Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert writes to TIME in an email statement.

Read more: How to Tell the Difference Between Heat Stress, Exhaustion, and Stroke

Gilbert adds that residents can paint their roof a reflective white to help block out sunlight, while Wright suggests people invest in a heat pump or air conditioner to help with additional cooling.

Improving insulation in ceilings, attics, crawl spaces and even walls, will also reduce heat, according to Gilbert. Residents can also get a deal when fixing their homes as “utilities offer rebates and the IRS provides tax credits for insulation,” Gilbert tells TIME.

Use the nighttime to your advantage

If you live in a house with thermal mass (meaning it’s made of brick or concrete and retains heat well), Wright says that you can try to cool your home at night without air conditioning. He suggests homeowners take note when the outside temperature drops below the interior temperature, and then open all the windows and doors that you can.

Of course, Wright mentions, this should only be done if safety is not a concern. Low lying windows or doors are especially beneficial when doing this technique because hot air rises.

Wright also mentions that any part of your house that is built into the ground, like a basement, is going to be much cooler than other parts of your house because it is touching the surrounding earth, which is likely cooler than the air temperature. Spending time there may be optimal for cooling.

Know when a fan is efficient

Wright says that ceiling fans with large paddles, or Casablanca fans, are most helpful. “It pushes the heat up toward the ceiling and provides evaporative cooling around the body of the person,” Wright tells TIME.

Sonia Singh is the marketing communications supervisor for Maricopa County, Ariz., where Phoenix is located. There, it can get so hot that simply slipping on the concrete can lead to second-degree burns. Singh says that fans “become insufficient for cooling the air at a safe temperature” when its hotter than 90°F. At that temperature, residents without air conditioning should move to a space with air conditioning.

Know when to move to a cooling center

Brown emphasizes that air conditioning is the most efficient way of staying cool when temperatures are particularly high.

Read more: Air-Conditioning Is Rare in the U.K. Could Heat Waves Change That?

“When it’s extremely hot, spending time in locations with air conditioning, particularly during the hottest hours of the day, is going to be your best line,” Brown says. “If you do not have air conditioning in your home, we do recommend going to public places where there is air conditioning such as shopping malls, public libraries, or public health sponsored heat relief shelters (sometimes these are referred to as cooling centers). Gilbert adds that anytime there is a heat advisory or heat warning and you do not have air conditioning, you should move to a cooling center.

Brown adds that staying cool should be a community effort, and asks that residents check on their neighbors who may not have any family members nearby or live alone.

If you or someone you know is feeling confusion, headache, or dizziness, they may be facing a heat-related illness. People should also watch out for muscle spasms, nausea, or profuse sweating.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – From Time

HOW TO KEEP YOUR PETS SAFE DURING EXTREME HEAT

BY HALEY WEISS JULY 18, 2023 4:03 PM EDT

Extreme heat often means increased demand for emergency medical services. This goes for animals, too.

When the temperature creeps upward, the field operations team at the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix receives call after call about dogs and cats (but mostly dogs) left outside or in other unsafe conditions. On a recent Monday, the six-person team began the day with 55 non-emergency calls to investigate, left over from the day before. That’s nearly twice the usual number of calls than in cooler months.

The calls are mostly from residents reporting dogs found without water, without shelter, or tethered by a rope or leash to a fixed object or structure, which is illegal in the state’s major cities when the temperature hits 100 degrees, said Director of Field Operations Tracey Miiller. “People think it’s okay to still take their dog for a walk in the middle of the day, and it really isn’t,” she says of Phoenix’s the 110-degree heat.

As the highest temperatures of the summer spread across the country, rescue organizations and shelters nationwide are taking precautions to protect the animals they house and help those they don’t. For a stray cat or dog, a heat wave can turn even stable conditions deadly. For those we keep as pets, understanding the risks that heat poses can help minimize risk and prevent overloading already-stressed response teams.

The consequences of hotter summers are evident in the death rates of animals, says Miiller. It used to be rare that a domestic animal would be killed by heat, but in the two-and-a-half month period from May 1 to July 12 this year, her team has found seven, up from three in the same period last year. Most of these deaths aren’t pets that were mistreated intentionally, and the increase is a good reminder of how quickly something can go wrong when it’s

Know the signs

Most pets, even indoor/outdoor cats, can easily be kept inside on hotter days. But for others—primarily dogs—that’s not an option. Though heat can be just as dangerous for dogs as humans, “I don’t know that people always recognize the signs of heat stress in dogs,” says Miiller.

Lauree Simmons, the founder and president of Big Dog Ranch, a no-kill rescue shelter with locations in Florida and Alabama, agrees. “Dogs can easily become overheated within 10 minutes,” she says, “especially the short-nosed dogs, like boxers, bulldogs, and French bulldogs.” Early signs of heat exhaustion in dogs include redness around the eyes and darkening of the gums and tongue, often to a deep dark red or purple (gums that are too pale, however, can also be a sign of heat exhaustion). Excessive salivating or panting is another key sign.

Read More: Extreme Heat Is Stressing Cows, Jeopardizing Global Dairy Supply

Most importantly, Simmons and Miiller say, never ever leave animals other than livestock unattended outdoors or in a vehicle in the summer (or ever, ideally). “We recently had a gecko that died in the front seat of a U-Haul truck because of the heat,” Miiller says. When it’s hot out, “normally people just think of dogs and cats, but all animals, even reptiles who love the heat, can only take so much.”

Change your walk routine

Walks should stay on the shorter side while it’s hot out—at Big Dog Ranch, outdoor play and walks are limited to 15 minutes at a time during a heat wave. As important, says Simmons, is the time of day. “It’s not a good time to go out and play ball or frisbee in the middle of the day,” while the sun is at its hottest,” she says. If it’s too hot for you to walk around comfortably, your dog is probably having a hard time too.

If you live in a city without grass to stroll on, consider investing in booties to protect the pads of your dog’s paws. Common sense should be able to tell you if the pavement is too hot, says Joe Elmore, president and CEO of the Charleston Animal Society in South Carolina. Though it may sound silly, “if you take your shoes off and put your bare foot on the pavement, if it’s hot to you, it’s hot to the dog.”

Put out plenty of water

At shelters and rescues, dogs have ready access to water for splashing and swimming. “We have plastic pools all over the place,” says Elmore. “Whenever the animals are outside, we have those available to them.” Volunteers and staff regularly refill the pools with cool water and even ice, ensuring that resident dogs always have an easy way to cool down during play. A hose, a sprinkler, or even some buckets can do a great job of providing the same relief during playtime. At Elmore’s home, where he has a swimming pool in his backyard, his own dog is allowed more extended time outside in heat for the same reason—it’s all about providing tools that can put the animals in control of their own temperature regulation. “He uses the pool a hell of a lot more than I do,” Elmore says of his dog Boo, a Great Pyrenees and Golden Retriever mix. “Sometimes I feel like he’s expecting me to bring him a cocktail.”

But as with humans, drinking water is the most important solution for animals fighting the heat. It’s also the easiest resource to provide for pets and strays in your area. Keep plenty of cool water available for pets while outside, and if you have animals that hang around your neighborhood, consider putting out bowls for them—particularly plastic ones. “If you’re giving them water in metal bowls out in the sun, that metal is going to heat up just like if it were on a stovetop,” says Elmore.

“If you can do multiple water bowls, that’s even better,” he adds. If you have cats in your neighborhood, be sure to also put the bowls in shady, tucked away places where they’ll feel comfortable sitting to drink.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – From the Washington Post

THE RACE TO SAVE BABY BIRDS IN PHOENIX’S RECORD HEAT

During record-runs of extreme heat, some birds tumble from their nests. Many end up at a wildlife rehabilitation center.

By Joshua Partlow July 24, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

PHOENIX — Heather Mitchell drove 30 miles across Phoenix last week with the temperature above 110 degrees, sitting next to a cheeping baby grackle that had dropped from its nest. Someone had posted about the fallen bird to a neighborhood group and Mitchell refused to let the tiny bundle of feathers die in the heat.

“I was like, ‘Okay, my husband’s home. He’ll take the kids. I’ll take the grackle,’” Mitchell told a volunteer manning the intake desk at Liberty Wildlife, an animal rehabilitation center in Phoenix. The shelter has been a frenzy of activity this month during the record-breaking run of extreme temperatures that’s been taxing for humans and wildlife alike.

Mitchell’s great-tailed grackle was the 7,109th animal that the shelter has taken in this year — and more were lining up behind. Gila woodpeckers. Barn owls. Harris’s hawks. Mourning doves. Shelter staff members say the warm months of late spring into summer are the busiest time of the year, when many baby birds are born and learning to fly.

Executive director Megan Mosby calls this “orphan season,” the time when young birds are found on the ground for any number of reasons — stumbles, high winds, collisions with window or cars. But stretches of extreme heat can add further strain to these birds and force some to fall from their nests, staff members say.

“A lot of them will just bail out or the parents will go, ‘it’s too hot,’ and they throw them out,” said Lane Seyler, a former bird keeper at the Phoenix Zoo who now volunteers at Liberty Wildlife. “It didn’t used to be this hot here. With all the pavement, the building, it doesn’t go down at night anymore, and it used to. It’s just extreme heat.”

Monday is expected to be the 25th straight day of temperatures above 110 degrees, a record for the city.

In this heat wave, pretty much every bird — or bunny, squirrel or raccoon — that arrives at the shelter is dehydrated and receives fluids from staff members. Arizona wildlife officials are delivering water throughout the state by truck and helicopter for animals in the wild. The shelter has asked the public to put out clean, shallow bowls of water to help birds find sustenance. Owls are making evening visits to swimming pools. Quail families are bathing in backyard fountains. Earlier this month, residents turned in a group of baby sparrows huddled under a dog’s water bowl.

“They’re trying to find any water source right now,” said Laura Hackett, the shelter’s wildlife biologist.

That scramble for water can contribute to birds drinking from dirty sources contaminated with a protozoa that leads to trichomoniasis, a disease that can impede a bird’s ability to swallow.

“That’s a real problem,” said Bob Fox, executive director of Wild at Heart, an Arizona-based nonprofit group that rehabilitates raptors.

The human body is remarkably resilient to heat, but the combination of heat and humidity (called the wet bulb temperature) can make it harder — or impossible — to cool down. Here’s what extreme heat does to the body, and how some parts of the world could become too hot for humans to survive.

Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard.

When there’s a heat wave, there are precautions you can take. There are foods you can eat (and should avoid) to help keep cool. Here’s how to know if it’s too hot to exercise, or too hot to take your dog for a walk.

His organization has taken in birds of prey found on the ground suffering from heat exposure and dehydration. At this point, they’re on pace to surpass the roughly 800 raptors they typically take in each year, he said.

“It’s very sad,” Fox said. “The heat has been very stressful on a lot of species all throughout the environment, especially with this extreme heat we’re undergoing right now.”

Liberty Wildlife, which sits on 6.5 acres south of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, feels like a bustling modern hospital, with X-ray and surgery suites, triage and intensive care units — albeit a hospital where a Sonoran Desert tortoise with a dog’s teeth marks in its shell ambles down a hallway unbothered.

The tortoise, Alpo, had been brought inside to avoid the heat. Outside, volunteers have been hosing down birds in their enclosures twice each afternoon to keep them cool.

In the orphan care room, the cheeping from dozens of tiny beaks is insistent and unrelenting. This is where the babies come when they fall from their nests. Using tubes or tweezers, volunteers feed bits of crickets or meal worms, protein-infused nectar, or soaked cat food. Some need to be fed every 20 minutes.

“There’s so many of them,” Hackett said. “As soon as you think you’re done, the first one you fed is hungry again.”

One of those hungry mouths was a fledgling Inca dove that had grown enough to move to the outdoor enclosures but couldn’t take the heat one day last week. The local birds are well adapted to heat, even though they don’t sweat. They have various ways to cool themselves. They find shade or a damp spot. They puff their feathers and pant with open beaks. But this young dove was faltering and was brought inside for medical treatment and a bite of watermelon.

“He had heat exhaustion this morning,” said Kathleen Scott, the orphan care coordinator, holding the furry, palm-sized dove. “He’s perked up.”

Some 60 percent of the animals received by the shelter will be released into the wild after they receive treatment.

After a run of high temperatures in early June last year, Liberty Wildlife saw a spike in intake numbers, reaching more than 150 new patients in one day, the most of any day that year. This year, those numbers are somewhat down, as the shelter is not accepting ducks, geese or waterfowl due to avian flu concerns. But the heat wave has made things particularly busy, as the breeding and fledgling season has coincided with extreme temperatures, Mosby said.

“It all adds up to wildlife needing extra help,” she said.

Hackett said the warming climate has not only made extreme temperatures more common but also extended the breeding season for some species of birds. She has noticed how barn owls, doves and other species are having babies twice and three times per year as winters get milder and warm temperatures last longer.

“We didn’t see that 10 years ago,” she said.

Wildlife shelters in other parts of the country have seen a spike in birds falling from their nests during heat waves, including during the run of historic temperatures in the Pacific Northwest in 2021.

Mitchell, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom, heard about the downed baby grackle last week from a Facebook post of her neighborhood group in the southern suburbs of Phoenix. Nobody seemed able to help. So she put the tiny black bird in a plastic box with a small blanket and drove it across town. It had a wing that seemed to be bothering it and it couldn’t yet fly.

“He was cheeping at me the whole way here and then he fell back asleep,” Mitchell told volunteer Yuki Nakai.

“You’re the neighborhood hero for today,” Nakai said.

“I’m not going to let it just sit there in the heat,” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to let it die.”

ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – From Time

WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMATE CHANGE, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A NEW NORMAL

Extreme Heat Breaks New Records Across the U.S., Europe

BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA  JULY 19, 2023 5:20 PM EDT

Melanie Guttmann, co-founder of Letzte Generation (Last Generation), a German climate group, once spent six days in jail after being arrested during a protest. She told me it was one of the worst experiences of her life. “I just wanted to get out of there and have a peaceful life, spend some time with the people I love, start a family.” But ultimately, she says, it was worth it, and she’d be willing to be in jail even longer if it might make a difference: “I started to realize that no matter if I’m in prison or not, I will never have those things because the climate crisis destroyed everything I dreamed of for my future.”

An unremitting stream of climate disasters have kept her words rattling around in my head since I spoke with her last Thursday. Vermont experienced its worst natural disaster in nearly a century last week, when storms poured two months worth of rain on the state in a matter of days, causing torrential floods and resulting in at least one death. A brutal two-and-a-half week stretch of extreme heat brought caseloads in one Phoenix emergency room to levels not seen since the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ocean water around the Florida Keys reached a weird bathwater temperature of over 90°F, posing a serious threat to coral reefs, while the earth as a whole hit the highest temperatures ever recorded earlier this month. Outside my window in New York, the air is again smudged with dangerous haze from massive wildfires continuing to burn a few hundred miles north.

I’ve been setting Guttmann’s words against the way that many well-intentioned politicians and much of the media tend to refer to what’s happening. The term “new normal” gets bandied about a lot. It’s meant, of course, to provoke alarm—to point out we’re not experiencing freak aberrations, but rather the entirely predictable long-term effects of pumping huge quantities of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere. But the phrase, to me, also has the connotation that now, at least, is “normal,” as if we’ve been riding an elevator of global temperature rise, and just arrived at the top floor. “It sure is hot up here at the new normal,” we say. “Good thing it won’t get any worse.”

Unfortunately, though, it will. The changes we are experiencing are only accelerating. Each new season is a baseline from which things will get weirder still. There’ll be yet more heat domes, hurricanes, and flooding, coming at a faster and faster clip. In less than ten years, tropical Dengue-carrying mosquitoes could be breeding in London and New York. Next decade might bring the first ice-free summer in the Arctic. By 2050, the world could be dealing with 1.2 billion climate refugees fleeing for their lives.

Whether or not you agree with Guttmann’s perspective, she’s definitely right about one thing: however bad things are now, they’re set to get a whole lot worse. We try not to be doomers on this newsletter: We can affect our climate trajectory, and eventually turn things around if we make major societal changes. But we also need to be clear-eyed about the fact that we’re on a slope. There is no “new normal” where we can stop to catch our breath—only the worst it’s been so far. There’ll be new levels of strangeness from here on out. And, if we don’t do something, things will get worse still.

A version of this story also appears in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR – From the Guardian U.K.

‘WE ARE DAMNED FOOLS’: SCIENTIST WHO SOUNDED CLIMATE ALARM IN 80’S WARNS OF WORSE TO COME

James Hansen, who testified to Congress on global heating in 1988, says world is approaching a ‘new climate frontier’

By Oliver Milman Wed 19 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT

The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s.

Hansen, whose testimony to the US Senate in 1988 is cited as the first high-profile revelation of global heating, warned in a statement with two other scientists that the world was moving towards a “new climate frontier” with temperatures higher than at any point over the past million years, bringing impacts such as stronger storms, heatwaves and droughts.

The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since mass industrialization, causing a 20% chance of having the sort of extreme summer temperatures currently seen in many parts of the northern hemisphere, up from a 1% chance 50 years ago, Hansen said.

“There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas amounts,” Hansen, who is 82, told the Guardian. “These superstorms are a taste of the storms of my grandchildren. We are headed wittingly into the new reality – we knew it was coming.”

Hansen was a Nasa climate scientist when he warned lawmakers of growing global heating and has since taken part in protests alongside activists to decry the lack of action to reduce planet-heating emissions in the decades since.

He said the record heatwaves that have roiled the US, Europe, China and elsewhere in recent weeks have heightened “a sense of disappointment that we scientists did not communicate more clearly and that we did not elect leaders capable of a more intelligent response”.

“It means we are damned fools,” Hansen said of humanity’s ponderous response to the climate crisis. “We have to taste it to believe it.”

This year looks likely to be the hottest ever recorded globally, with the summer already seeing the hottest June and, possibly, hottest week ever reliably measured. Conversely, 2023 may in time be considered an average or even mild year, as temperatures continue to climb. “Things will get worse before they get better,” Hansen said.

“This does not mean that the extreme heat at a particular place this year will recur and grow each year. Weather fluctuations move things around. But the global average temperature will go up and the climate dice will be more and more loaded, including more extreme events.”

Hansen has argued in a new research paper, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, that the rate of global heating is accelerating, even when natural variations, such as the current El Niño climatic event that periodically raises temperatures, are accounted for. This is due to what he said was an “unprecedented” imbalance in the amount of energy coming into the planet from the sun versus the energy reflected away from Earth.

While global temperatures are undoubtably climbing due to the burning of fossil fuels, scientists are divided over whether this rate is accelerating. “We see no evidence of what Jim is claiming,” said Michael Mann, a University of Pennsylvania climate scientist who added that the heating of the climate system had been “remarkably steady”. Others said the idea was plausible, although more data was required to be certain.

“It’s maybe premature to say the warming is accelerating, but it’s not decreasing, for sure. We still have our foot on the gas,” said Matthew Huber, an expert in paleoclimatology at Purdue University.

Scientists have estimated, through reconstructions based on evidence gathered via ice cores, tree rings and sediment deposits, that the current surge in heating has already brought global temperatures to levels not seen on Earth since about 125,000 years ago, before the last ice age.

“We quite possibly are already living in a climate that no human has lived through before and we are certainly living in a climate that no human has lived in since before the birth of agriculture,” said Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University.

Should global temperatures rise by a further 1C or more, which is widely predicted to happen by the end of the century barring a drastic reduction in emissions, Huber said Hansen was “broadly correct” that the world will be plunged into the sort of warmth not seen since 1-3m years ago, a period of time called the Pliocene.

“That is a radically different world,” said Huber of an epoch in which it was warm enough for beech trees to grow near the south pole and sea levels were about 20 meters higher than now, which would today drown most coastal cities.

“We are pushing temperatures up to Pliocene levels, which is outside the realm of human experience; it’s such a massive change that most things on Earth haven’t had to deal with it,” Huber said. “It’s basically an experiment on humans and ecosystems to see how they respond. Nothing is adapted to this.”

Previous shifts in the climate, spurred by greenhouse gases or changes in the Earth’s orbit, have caused changes to unfold over thousands of years. But as heatwaves strafe populations unused to extreme temperatures, forests burn and marine life struggles to cope with soaring ocean heat, the current upward spike is occurring at a pace not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago.

“It’s not just the magnitude of change, it’s the rate of change that’s an issue,” said Ellen Thomas, a Yale University scientist who studies climate over geologic timescales. “We have highways and railroads that are set in place, our infrastructure can’t move. Almost all my colleagues have said that, in hindsight, we have underestimated the consequences. Things are moving faster than we thought, which is not good.”

This summer’s searing heat has fully revealed to the world a message that Hansen attempted to deliver 35 years ago and scientists have strived to convey since, according to Huber. “We have been staring this in the face as scientists for decades, but now the world is going through that same process, which is like the five stages of grief,” he said. “It’s painful to watch people go through it.

“But we can’t simply give up because the situation is dire,” Huber added. “We need to say ‘Here is where we need to invest and make changes and innovate’ and not give up. We can’t just write off billions of people.”

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE – From the Union of Concerned Scientists

NO WORD ON CLIMATE FROM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES STUMPING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AMID RECORD GLOBAL HEAT

July 20, 2023 | 5:41 pm

Here in New Hampshire I have been listening for climate and energy solutions from GOP presidential hopefuls, but all I’ve heard are crickets. A half-dozen candidates joined in 4^th of July parades in New Hampshire in a week when we witnessed the hottest week (globally) in recorded history as well as temperatures in the mid-90s in the state, which prompted the National Weather Service to issue an extreme heat alert for eight counties. Not a word from candidates. 

Two seasons in one

The presidential primary season coincides with “Danger Season”—the period between May and October when the Northern Hemisphere experiences back-to-back extreme weather augmented by climate change. Candidates are crisscrossing New Hampshire amid climate-related and climate-boosted catastrophes.

As I write this, 1.5 million people in Phoenix, Arizona are waking up to their third full week of temperatures over 110°F. Vermont is recovering from catastrophic floods, as is New Hampshire, also on the heels of a weather-related agricultural wipeout. Some of the highest risks can be found in the candidates’ home states: the ocean off of Florida has hit 98 degrees—hot tub temps! Among mid-Atlantic states, New Jersey is ground zero for climate change.

Over the Connecticut River and through the woods, Vermont is receiving emergency aid to address an estimated $750 million in damages from intense rainstorms that scientists suggest can be expected more often because of climate change.  The state’s resilience plans have been put to the test and resilience will get harder, according to my colleague Dr. Rachel Cleetus.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu already planned to ask the Biden administration to declare eight of the state’s ten counties disaster areas because of weather-caused crop damage, and now must ask again for federal aid in response to severe flooding in July, when up to 5 inches of rain fell in one day, washing out roads and making them impassable.

Cannot the past be prologue?

Candidates did not use climate change as a defining issue in the 2008 presidential general election because there was no daylight between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama with respect to climate science, a sense of urgency, and policy solutions! In 2011 I invited Reagan-era economist Art Laffer to speak to a hall filled exclusively with New Hampshire Republicans, both leaders and rank and file conservatives. His address focused on corporate taxes, and he shared his expert opinion that a carbon tax had a legitimate place in our national revenue system. In 2015 Senator Kelly Ayotte supported the EPA Clean Power Plan. 

Several years ago (with the help of a number of New Hampshire business leaders, among them a former GOP House Speaker and RNC committeeman and businessperson of the year), I invited 100 business owners to come together for a day, not to learn about climate science, but to simply share the changes they were seeing outside their own windows.  The result was a candid report framing the financial risks amplified by a changing climate. Simply put, climate-related severe weather events slow and stop the wheels of commerce, and those events are occurring with more frequency. The risks are real, and the negative outcomes are all the more real, expensive, and disruptive.

Nevertheless, today in New Hampshire we hear crickets from candidates despite history and polls.  We should expect to hear more, as climate impacts are only going to get worse. As a climate scientist recently said on CNN, “Until we stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere we have no idea what the future looks like.”

So I’ve begun to meet presidential candidates…

… and ask climate questions that relate to their own political history, past statements, and actions.

In preparation for a Meet the Candidate event, I submitted a question to the hosts Saint Anselm College and local station WMUR-TV. I wanted to ask Vivek Ramaswamy to reconcile his description of himself as a scientist (while he does have a biology undergraduate degree, his career has been focused on finance) with his dismissive reference to a “climate cult”. As it happened, WMUR TV Political Director Adam Sexton ended up using my question in his interview before the town hall meeting began.

When I met former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, I asked about his clean energy solutions and explained that his predecessor Governor Mike Huckabee spoke at a New Hampshire climate conference I organized in 2007, where he affirmed his support for mandatory limits on carbon emissions. Hutchinson was surprised to learn of Huckabee’s position and promised to get back to me.

After thanking Ambassador Nikki Haley for coming to New Hampshire and acknowledging she understands climate change is real and caused by humans, I asked her if she thought her preferred solution—carbon capture and storage—could be implemented without a price on carbon (to spur the private sector), and if needed, what would that price be?  After all, conservative economic experts Art Laffer, Libertarian Jerry Taylor, and Douglas Holt-Eakin all support a price on carbon. 

My next meeting is with former congressman Bill Hurd of Texas, and I want to ask him to expand on his positions he shared in 2021. He said, “until more people think climate change is impacting them personally then we won’t see the political will necessary to do something about it.”

Ignoring the candidates is a mistake

Sadly, it’s crickets from people who live and work in New Hampshire and even from some fellow advocates, too.   Through conversations I know firsthand many people who understand that climate change represents an existential crisis, and that climate action is a priority, yet are not making the time to meet the GOP contenders. Contrary to what some may think, engaging candidates is not a waste of time. Climate change is leaving no one untouched this year in any state—and without climate action it’s only going to get worse. Extreme weather events scientifically linked to climate change—like record-setting heat, flooding, and wildfires—are harming the safety, health and prosperity of people and communities across the country. 

We have history on our side and tools we can use. 

The UCS Killer Heat Interactive Tool shows projected increases in the Heat Index for each county in the contiguous US.  Coastal residents can see in the UCS report, Underwater, how sea level rise will impact real estate in every coastal zip code and congressional district. And our Too Hot to Work maps show potential wage losses in Congressional Districts for outdoor workers due to extreme heat.

My hope is that people in the early-voting states of Iowa (January 15) New Hampshire (February 13) and South Carolina (February 24; first in the South) engage with candidates and focus attention on climate action. There are ample reasons to do so in each state (South Carolina and New Hampshire in particular). Candidates are stumping loudly in Iowa, one of only four states that turned down $3 million from the federal government to help the state create a climate action plan, a daffy decision according to this opinion in the Iowa Gazette.

Engage!

We the people make the retail politics of presidential campaigns necessary for success in New Hampshire. Participatory democracy is alive and mostly well, and debates and local solutions to the climate crisis have benefitted from people talking with each other.

Get out there and talk with a candidate; it’s easier than you think. For example, Open Democracy manages a list of candidate events. Meet one presidential candidate before the first GOP presidential debate scheduled for August 23 in Milwaukee. Candidates love to share stories from the campaign trail; maybe you’ll influence a remark from one of them!   

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – From the New Republic

RFK Jr. —former member of Riverkeeper and the National Resources Defense Council, and founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance—has positioned himself as a climate change man-in-arms, but the evening embodied the incoherencies of his campaign. While previously throwing his support behind much-needed mass action like the Green New Deal, Kennedy posted a video just this week saying that “free markets are a much better way to stop pollution,” advancing the claim that climate change is “being used to control us through fear.”

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – From Heatmap.com

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON’S CLIMATE DOCTRINE

An interview with the long-shot candidate with a moonshot climate proposal

JEVA LANGE JUNE 20, 2023

In a different world, maybe, Marianne Williamson is president.

There has been no such luck in this one — the 2020 campaign of the best-selling self-help author ended before the Iowa Democratic caucuses, her poll numbers never cresting the low single digits nationally. Though she managed to raise more money than either Washington Governor Jay Inslee or New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during that time, most Americans likely best remember Williamson today for the memes and jokes about crystals, or the moment during one of the early, carnivalesque Democratic debates when she memorably warned Donald Trump that “I am going to harness love for political purposes and sir, love will win.”

Williamson is running again in 2024, a campaign that might seem even more quixotic than the last: After all, a primary challenger has never won a nomination against an incumbent president in modern U.S. history. During my Zoom conversation with her last week, she as much as admitted that we’re probably not living in a reality right now where the country would conceivably “elect me president.” (Williamson is facing other obstacles, too — there are reports of high turnover within her campaign as well as rumors of her alleged temper contributing to a toxic workplace culture, claims she’s pushed back on).

But if her 2020 campaign was often treated as a joke, the 2024 campaign is earning Williamson a cautious reappraisal. For one thing, she’s huge with the TikTok crowd. Though she was only polling around 9% this spring, that’s “higher than most of Donald Trump’s declared challengers in the GOP primary,” Politico noted at the time; Williamson also, by another poll’s findings, held 20% of the under-30 vote.

Some of the 2020 jokes have also started to look somewhat unfair in retrospect; Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, is into crystals, too, but he hasn’t faced nearly the same gleeful mockery that Williamson has. Jacobin’s Liza Featherstone went as far as to write a piece earlier this year defending Williamson as a “serious” progressive candidate with a platform that is “essentially the Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 agenda.”

Much of the renewed attraction is related to Williamson’s climate agenda. When President Biden approved the Willow Project this spring, he alienated some of his young supporters who felt betrayed by his reneging on “no more drilling.” Williamson has been loudly critical of the Willow Project, and her campaign’s climate action statement is nearly 3,000 words long (and makes no less than three references to World War II).

Calling Williamson’s climate plan “ambitious” is an understatement: She promises everything from reaching “100 percent renewable energy” and phasing out fossil fuel vehicles by 2035; to decarbonizing all buildings by 2045; to investing half the federal funds for highways into transit. But as Williamson herself would say, “ambitious” is what we need. We spoke last week about her vision and what it would take to make it work.

Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Were you on the East Coast at all last week to experience the smoke?

I’m in London because my daughter had a baby.

Oh my gosh, congratulations! That’s so wonderful and exciting! Were you following the smoke news from afar?

Oh, of course I was. Yes, of course. I don’t know how nature could be any louder at this point. This is no longer about what will happen if we don’t act: This is about what is already happening. It wasn’t just the smoke on the East Coast and Canada, either. It was also all the dead fish in Texas. It’s unspeakable.

But our state of — I don’t know if it’s a state of denial. I think we have a critical mass of people who are no longer in denial. The problem is the sclerotic, paralytic nature of the political system in so many areas; the problem is not with the people.

I think the environmental movement has been successful at getting the word not just out, but in the hearts and minds of enough people. But our political system at this point does more to thwart than to facilitate. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking to see tens of thousands of people out on the street. The people are speaking but the voice of the people is not reflected in our political realities. It’s not expressed in our political policies because, obviously, the financial influence of big oil and other nefarious actors drowns out the voice of the people.

You’ve said before that we need a World War II-scale response to the climate crisis but we couldn’t assemble that kind of unified, patriotic buy-in during the COVID pandemic. Is it even possible for Americans to come together for a common cause like climate anymore?

It’s going to take a certain kind of leader. There’s a book called No Ordinary Time about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the Depression and World War II. And when Hitler was beginning his march to Europe, Roosevelt began to realize pretty early — particularly given conditions in England — that we had a serious problem here that would probably only be dealt with if the United States ended the war.

But there was a tremendous trend towards isolationism in that time particularly because of the experience of World War I. So Roosevelt knew that he couldn’t just decide to enter the war. He had to talk to the American people. That’s what the fireside chats were. He had to convince people. And if you have a leader who’s more concerned about following the leader, who’s more concerned about the donors than about, in this case, the survivability of the planet and the species that live on it, then you can’t blame the people for the fact that no one is doing what is necessary to harness the energy we need.

You warn in your climate action statement that “even bold incremental change … is not enough to stave off environmental catastrophe.” What is your opinion of the Inflation Reduction Act?

Well, the Inflation Reduction Act had some very nice investments in green energy. [Claps sarcastically]. Applause, applause, applause — until you see that he also approved the Willow Project. If you look at the effects of the Willow Project, that will nullify the effects of the energy investments. (Editors’ Note: The Willow Project is expected to increase annual American emissions by 9.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. According to the Rhodium Group, the IRA is projected to cut “439-660 million metric tons in 2030.”)

Plus you add to that the expansion of the military budget and you remember that the U.S. defense establishment, the U.S. military, is the single largest global institutional emitter of greenhouse gases. So this is how that establishment playbook works. Look at what I’m doing! Look at what I’m doing! I’m investing in green energy! I understand that the climate crisis is an existential threat, and I’m giving all this [money to] green energy, nobody’s given so much investment! And then over here, on the other hand, I’m giving more oil drilling permits even than Trump did. I’m approving the Willow Project, I’m expanding the military budget, and I’m approving the exploitation of liquefied natural gas — and we’ve been trained to just say, “oh, okay.”

You’ve historically opposed nuclear energy, but a push for clean energy is a major part of your climate platform. Would nuclear energy be a part of your vision going forward?

My problem with nuclear energy is not that I don’t understand the technological advances that make it arguably a safe technology. I understand that. People have said to me so often, “Marianne, you’ve got to read this, Marianne you've got to read that, the technology has improved, it’s safe.” It’s not that I don’t trust the technology. It’s that I don’t trust people.

It’s not about the state of the technology; it’s about the state of our humanity and also the state of our climate. I mean, there’s no predicting weather. There are certain weather catastrophes that could and would override the safety measures of nuclear plants no matter what we did.

And I’m not convinced we need it. When World War II started, we basically had no standing army really. And England didn’t have anything. And Hitler not only had spent the last five years building up his military, but then he absorbed the industrial capacity of every country that he invaded. We had nothing, but you know what? We needed to get something. And we did — and that’s the issue here. The issue is not that we cannot technologically make this happen. The issue is harnessing the energy of the American people in such a way that enough of us want to.

Do you have any thoughts about … how to do that? I think something like 149 members of Congress right now deny the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. Like, where do you even start?

If this country gets to the point where they would elect me president, it’s reasonable to assume it would also be at a place where they were ready to elect the kind of congressional and senatorial legislators who would agree with me and align with me in great enough numbers that my agenda could be effectuated.

You talk in your climate statement about how you want to decarbonize all buildings by 2045, and write that “all older buildings would have to be … converted to electric space heating, cooking, and hot water technologies.” Should we understand this to mean you’d ban all gas stoves?

[Laughing] Not necessarily.

When you talk about moving away from the fossil fuel industry, you say you would do so following “just transition” principles. Can you tell me what that would look like?

There are many thousands of people in this country who make a living, pay their rent, put food on the table, and send their kids to college because they work at jobs that are at least indirectly related to the fossil fuel industry. That is not to be ignored. That is not to be underappreciated. There are people who would say, “Wait a minute, I make over $100,000 a year working for an oil company and you want me to make $15 an hour installing solar panels?” That person should not drop through the cracks.

Now, that’s gonna take a lot of mobilization right there when it comes to manufacturing, when it comes to research, when it comes to technology. We can move things laterally but we have to have the intention to do that.

The way I see it, we have a really, really, really big ship here. It’s headed for the iceberg. We’ve got to turn this thing around, but it can’t be turned around in a jackknife; it has to be turned around responsibly and wisely. And part of that, just transition, is respecting the needs of people. And the way we make that transition is very important to me. A lot of those people would not have voted for me, by the way.

What do you mean?

I think a lot of people who would be fearful, in the short term, that they would lose out might not vote for me. But that would only be on the misperception that I underestimate their needs.

I wanted to ask about your proposed ban on concentrated animal feeding operations since this isn’t something we often hear much about. Can you tell me why it was important for you to include that in your platform?

During the last campaign, I was basically living in Iowa. And I never had been that up close and personal with animals factory farming. And once you have experienced it, seen it, smelled it, you see it in a very different way. I mean, I conceptually know we should all be against cruelty to animals but then when you actually see what goes on, and then read more about slaughterhouses, et cetera, you recognize the moral imperative involved.

Your climate statement says that “educating women globally and family planning are known to be an important part of the [climate] solution.” Tell me more about that.

When you look at the history of the Western world, one of the historical phase transitions was the destruction of early pagan culture. And there was a time when women held aloft throughout the continent of Europe a sense of divine connection with the Earth, with the trees, with the waters, with the sky. And an early dispensation of Christianity was moving away from the notion of partnership with nature, to a very different paradigm in which nature was seen to have been created for mankind's utilitarian purposes.

Now even when you look at the natural order that way, humanity was instructed to be proper stewards of the world. But obviously, the way things unfolded… The hyper-capitalistic activity of big oil companies certainly does not display — and the laws that enabled that desecration to occur — do not reflect a reverence for the Earth or proper stewardship of it.

It was women who felt this natural connection to the Earth, who were the keepers of that flame and the consciousness of humanity at a particular place and a particular time. To me, feminism means not just standing for women, but standing for all feminine aspects of consciousness. And that means a greater sense of connection to nature, within ourselves, within each other, with animals, and with the Earth itself. So anything that empowers women, to me, increases our capacity to repair the Earth.

There is a debate in the climate space right now over prioritizing the energy transition by building out solar farms and wind farms, which require a lot of land, versus prioritizing nature by putting conservation, wildlife—

I’m an all-of-the-above type. But my natural holistic attitude towards things would be your second category. The first is transactional. Necessary, but not of themselves enough. Especially — I’m not an advocate for nuclear energy.

Was there a moment you can pinpoint in your life when you became an environmentalist? Was there a particular moment of awakening for you?

I don’t think of myself as an environmentalist; I think of myself as a human. You don’t have to call yourself an environmentalist to grieve what’s happening. Not that I wouldn’t call myself an environmentalist, it’s just I have enough labels, I don’t need another one.

I think we are disconnected from those things which are most important. We’ve lost over 50% of our bird species. Think how much more music there used to be in the air, how much more beauty.

I will tell you a moment that changed my life. It didn’t make me think, “Oh, I’m an environmentalist now.” But it impacted me in a way that nature never had before: When I went camping and hiking in the wilderness in Montana. That’s it.

I was one of those people — it’s almost embarrassing to admit this — but I thought, “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen pictures.” But once you go to certain places, you experience awe before nature. And destroying that mountaintop, oil drilling on that land, all the other things we do… You see the rivers, the creeks dying, the fish dying. Once again, it’s not because we were environmentalists. It’s because you’re a human with a modicum of connection to your soul.

You recently visited East Palestine, Ohio. What did you see on that visit?

East Palestine, Ohio, is a sacrifice zone. These things happen in the areas where people are the least able to absorb the pain. And I heard the fury, I saw the fury, I saw the decency, I saw the dignity, I saw the frustration, the bitterness, the despair, and in some cases, the hopelessness of people who had been not only neglected, abandoned, abused, and traumatized by Norfolk Southern, but had been re-traumatized by the neglect of their state and federal government.

Is there anything else that we haven’t touched on that you would like our readers to know about you or your climate platform?

I think we need to declare an emergency. I don’t say that lightly, by the way. And the powers of government should not be used like a bludgeon or meat cleaver. They should be used with appropriate nuance. Now, having said that, it has become clear to me that oil companies are not going to do this. The government, I believe, should act.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT– From the Sierra Club

SENATOR JOE MANCHIN IS THE COAL BARON’S FAVORITE COAL BARON

By Jonathon Berman July 14, 2023

“We’ve long known that Senator Joe Manchin is the coal baron’s favorite coal baron, but his efforts to lift up corporate polluters, block clean air, safe drinking water, and the clean energy industry go so much further,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous. “The Inflation Reduction Act – a bill he had a heavy hand in – is doing what it intended; making major investments in clean energy, creating jobs, and addressing inflation in America. Yet, Manchin spends his time trashing the bill and exploring avenues to repeal critical provisions that would save consumers money. He’s sought to undermine or weaken practically every attempt to safeguard clean air and water from coal, oil and gas pollution. And even after he tried to legislate the Mountain Valley Pipeline into existence, Manchin continues his efforts to further chip away at bedrock environmental laws. The fossil fuel industry and their never ending profit margin, do not need yet another advocate. The American people, facing deadly heat, floods, and air quality do. Senator Manchin needs to prove he is more than just a coal baron.”

Over the past few years, Manchin has made a number of headlines for these deadly actions. Below is a snippet of them.

· The Guardian: ‘It’s a deal with the devil’: outrage in Appalachia over Manchin’s ‘vile’ pipeline plan; New York Times: Manchin’s Donors Include Pipeline Giants That Win in His Climate Deal

o Senator Manchin engineered a plot to add damaging provisions to the must-pass debt ceiling deal that weakened NEPA and fast-tracked approval for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. He continues to push so-called "permitting reform" that would gut NEPA, the Clean Water Act, and other critical environmental protections. So far this year, the industry has donated $331,000 to Manchin – up from $20,000 in 2020, according to federal campaign finance disclosures tracked by Open Secrets. 

· New York Times: Manchin, Playing to the Home Crowd, Is Fighting Electric Cars to the End

o Senator Manchin fought electric vehicle incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act incessantly, including the union provision; he was ultimately responsible for shrinking the incentive by cutting the extra incentive for union-made cars. 

· New York Times: How Manchin Aided Coal, and Earned Millions

o As a state senator, Manchin went into business with the local power plant, supplying them an inefficient low-grade coal (literally called gob) and arranged to profit off his constituents by getting money from the plant’s revenue/his constituents’ electricity bills. This business continues to this day, to the benefit of his financial interest.

· Sierra Magazine: West Virginians Are Disappointed in Joe Manchin; Coal Miners Weren’t Happy When Joe Manchin Derailed Build Back Better

o His refusal to support Build Back Better, which was popular in West Virginia, turned his own constituents against him, as well as coal miners themselves.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE – From Media Matters via Newsmax (!)

RIGHT-WING MEDIA DENY CLIMATE CHANGE IN FACE OF DEADLY AND RECORD-BREAKING EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER, EVLONDO COOPER & ILANA BERGER RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALICIA SADOWSKI PUBLISHED 07/20/23 3:22 PM EDT

As the climate crisis becomes more evident and destructive, even exceeding climate scientists’ earlier predictions, Fox News and other influential right-wing outlets and figures are downplaying the severity of climate-fueled events and pushing dangerous climate denial. 

This summer has been marked by a series of record-breaking extreme weather events, illustrative of the rapidly intensifying effects of global warming. Unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, and floods have wreaked havoc across North America. Meanwhile, global sea surface temperatures have reached alarming levels, and the world just experienced its hottest day on record — four days in a row. These events align with scientists' warnings, but the acceleration of warming and the intensity of this summer’s extreme heat suggest that the climate crisis is unfolding faster than expected.

Last month, when smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada polluted the air over major population centers in the U.S., Fox News dismissed the link between the fires and climate change; meanwhile conspiracy theories seeking alternative explanations for Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season flourished online. In response to news that Earth had reached its hottest temperatures ever recorded, bad actors attempted to distract from the unsettling milestone by focusing on CNN’s use of the phrase “hottest day ever.”  As deadly heat continues to scorch parts of the U.S., Asia, and Europe with no end in sight, and with a 1,000-year flood event having left parts of Vermont and New York state underwater, right-wing media cling to talking points that deny climate science.

By flooding the zone with climate denial right when the climate crisis is most evident, right-wing media run cover for Republican decision-makers who are actively obstructing climate action, ward off accountability for the fossil fuel industry, and pollute information systems for those attempting to understand the link between extreme weather and our dependence on fossil fuels. This tactic, like the extreme heat, has no end in sight.

Right-wing media responded to deadly climate change-fueled heat and flooding with denial and delay

· Fox Business host Stuart Varney indulged climate change denier Marc Morano and said climate change is “a good debate.” When discussing extreme heat in Phoenix, Arizona, Morano said, “This is not outside the normal bounds of hot summer weather,” and claimed that CNN, The New York Times, and others are “weaponizing hot summer heat waves to turn it into some kind of climate action.” Varney asked Morano whether “that is not the result of CO2 emissions'' and said, “It's a good debate. This is a very good debate.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 7/19/23]

· Far-right radio host Steven Crowder hosted climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg, who downplayed the climate crisis by arguing that more people die from cold than heat: “We are not talking about a world where most people die from heat. No, most people die from cold. Cold is fantastically more dangerous for a lot of different reasons.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 7/19/23]

· The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh suggests that the extreme heat is normal for summer: “Well it’s summertime and that means it's hot outside … This is when the media, as it does every year, claims that the hot weather is a sign of our impending planetary doom.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 7/18/23]

· Far-right pundit James Lindsay: “Climate struggle sessions ramping up. They're going to try and fail to make that transition again. The propaganda isn't going to work this time either, though.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

· Fox News host Laura Ingraham, in response to an Axios article about extreme weather: “I'm not taking @Axios seriously until they start crusading against coal burning in China — anyone who claims to worry about carbon emissions should start there or button it. Even the ‘best states for climate change’ get hit with extreme weather” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

· COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Dr. Naomi Wolf: “Oh! Conclusions: this will happen more and more often because climate change so: stay indoors, do remote work, ‘mask’. Back where we were again.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

· Right-wing Irish political activist and conspiracy theorist Ben Gilroy: “Today media continue to propagandise weather showing high temperatures in Death Valley USA — yet the park rangers wear jackets and gloves? The elites UN climate scam is really about securing a world government plutocracy, depopulation, and severely cutting your quality of life.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

· Fox host Jesse Watters downplayed the extreme heat as simply “summer”: “It's been a hot July. Some call it ‘global warming,’ some call it ‘summer.’ But what's the best way to beat the heat? Ice cream.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/17/23]

· Lindsay mocked conditions in the southern U.S. that were so humid they had the potential to interfere with humans’ ability to sweat, pushing the limits of survivability. [Twitter, 7/17/23]

· Longtime fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy: “@AP: 'Around the world, millions feel the heat of an unrelenting summer.' Two points: 1. It is summer. It gets hot. 2. There 8 billion in the world. If only 'millions' are experiencing extreme heat, that doesn't sound much like 'climate change.'” [Twitter, 7/17/23]

· Misogynist influencer and alleged sex trafficker Tristan Tate: “They’re naming heatwaves like they used to name new ‘Covid variants’. Can somebody in the government give me the job of whoever makes the names up? I’ll do it for free. Watch out! The ‘lovely warm summer’ heatwave has just hit Europe.” [Twitter, 7/15/23]

· COVID-19 conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine influencer Dr. Eli David: “When the weather is a bit warmer than usual: Experts™: IT'S PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING!!!!! When the weather is colder than usual: Experts™: WEATHER AND CLIMATE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS YOU MORONS!!!!!” [Twitter, 7/17/23]

· Newsmax host Chris Salcedo mocked concern over the record heat: “Newsflash folks, it gets hot in the summer.”  He continued, “After a few particularly hot days on the Fourth of July weekend, the left — they went into full fearmongering mode.” Salcedo then interviewed Milloy, who warned that climate activists would call for climate lockdowns. [Newsmax, The Chris Salcedo Show, 7/17/23]

· On The Five, Jesse Watters attacked “the left” for connecting climate change to heat waves across the globe and mocked climate activists: “The left rushing to blame global warming for that dangerous heat wave gripping the nation and the world right now. But I think the heat's getting to their heads. Climate change-obsessed liberals are actually acting crazier than usual, with eco-extremists in Germany literally gluing their hands to airport runways as a way to sound the alarm on how the planet's cooked.”  [Fox News, The Five, 7/17/23]

· Fox host Greg Gutfeld also attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states, how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, ‘How many countries are there?’” [Fox News, The Five, 7/17/23]

· On America’s Newsroom, Lomborg suggested that more air conditioning is the way to address extreme heat: “The way to fix this, of course, is to make sure that people get lots of air conditioning and that they can actually afford the energy that they will run their air conditioning on. That’s one. The second one is to remember that, yes, there are many people dying from heat, but many, many more people dying from cold.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/17/23]

· Climate change denier and former University of Alabama professor Matthew Wielicki: “We used to call this summer. Now we call this a climate crisis.” [Twitter, 7/15/23]

· Milloy: “India's monsoon season is not affected by emissions. Indians have died in monsoon flooding since there have been Indians and monsoons. It is really dishonest and disgusting to surf tragic deaths for climate.” [Twitter, 7/14/23]

· Right-wing British pundit Brendan O’Neill, who has been praised by anti-renewable energy activist Michael Shellenberger, wrote that “global warming could be good for humankind.” Citing Lomborg, O’Neill wrote that “the truth is that global warming could be good for humankind” because more people die from the cold than heat. “It’s pissing down in Britain,” he continued, “Where’s our global warming? Even the name of the heatwave is designed to conjure up visions of hellfire and torment.” [Spiked, 7/14/23]

· On Fox News at Night, Carl Demaio, a political operative and conservative radio host, called a California campaign to warn residents about climate-driven extreme heat “wasteful spending” and “fear porn.” [Fox News, Fox News at Night, 7/12/23]

· Newsmax host Eric Bolling, in response to calls for climate action after flooding in the Northeast, denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “It's raining, so we all must change our behavior. Unprecedented weather events — look flooding’s terrible, loss of property is a disaster, and our hearts go out to those affected. But just imagine, for one moment, the ridiculousness and the pompousness to think that: one, our behavior has any real impact on weather and the Earth, and two, even if that were true — which it’s not — that we could do anything about it without making things worse.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, 7/11/23]

· Fox host Laura Ingraham also mocked the extreme heat and calls to action, suggesting that climate change is a made-up crisis: “It's hot, hot, hot all right. After all, we're in the middle of a season called ‘summer.’” Ingraham later played a clip from a previous show, arguing that “COVID lockdowns set the predicate for more to come.”  She said, “Their so-called public health experts were wrong on everything from lockdowns to masks to social distancing. And yet now we see the usual suspects lining up to exploit  another hyped crisis: of course, I’m talking about climate change.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/11/23]

· Right-wing journalist and author Alex Berenson: As climate change hysteria reaches a new level of screeching (1-in-1000 this, world's hottest that), remember that weather-related deaths have PLUNGED since 1970. The wealthier the world becomes, the easier managing climate change will be. And wealth requires energy. Period. [Twitter, 7/10/23]

· On Jesse Watters Primetime, guest host Pete Hegseth mocked reports of record-breaking heat and blamed media for “hyping climate insanity”: If there is one thing the mindless left loves to magically discover every year, it’s that summer is hot. Hegseth continued, “It was hotter in New York in April. And it’s not even the hottest June we’ve ever had. The data shows that the 80s and 90s … were a lot hotter.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/7/23]

ATTACHMENT THIRTY – From MediaMatters via NewsMax

JESSE WATTERS IS BRINGING HIS EGREGIOUS BRAND OF CLIMATE DENIAL TO THE 8PM HOUR

WRITTEN BY ILANA BERGER, RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALICIA SADOWSKI PUBLISHED 07/17/23 2:48 PM EDT

Fox News host Jesse Watters, whose primetime show is slated to take over the 8 p.m. slot, has successfully spun misinformation about renewable energy, decarbonization, and even public health initiatives into ubiquitous talking points that are now routinely used by climate change deniers.

Watters’ unrelenting posture of condescension falsely brands climate change mitigation as a corruption-laced grift to leech money from unsuspecting Americans, inviting fossil fuel shills and climate deniers to fill in the gaps of his outlandish theories. For Watters, the depths of the supposed lies from the environmental movement are only made more ironic by the triviality of the climate crisis and its consequences for his audience. 

In the past year, Watters doubled down on feeding this delusion:

· Watters said that global warming is “more about corporate propaganda. They’re just saying, ‘You have to buy, or you’re going to die.’” He continued, “You got to get a new car; you got to get solar panels; you got to get a new stove. Who do you think has the money? They get the money and our prices go up.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/1/23]

· In a segment on gas stoves Watters said, “They’re trying to force their green industrial revolution on us, whether we want it or not. Seems like this is just a ploy to get them to buy more stuff the Democrats are selling.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/10/23]

· Before an interview with renewable energy opponent Michael Schellenberger, Watters said that “climate change hysteria” is “all cash”: “It’s all a ruse. So what’s the climate hysteria really about? It’s all cash…The climate stuff sounds to me like corporate America’s making us buy new stuff, and then making us feel guilty for not buying it.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/3/23]

· Watters claimed that CNN modeling sea level rise of New York City is “just to scare us into paying more taxes to the government to fight global warming.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/16/22]

· In a segment where he claimed voters don’t care about climate change, he said, “Certain parts of the world will get a tiny bit warmer, but the United States will do just fine.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/20/22]

· Using a popular climate change denier talking point, Watters insisted that, “Nowhere though have experts been more wrong than on climate change.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/12/22]

Consequently, his show, Jesse Watters Primetime, has been a boon to various bad actors and industry executives in their efforts to hinder an economy-wide transition away from fossil fuels by vilifying wind farms without evidence.

Watters unleashed a deluge of misinformation about offshore wind and whales

Watters was seemingly the first major TV news network host to parrot misinformation peddled by a partially fossil fuel-funded campaign against offshore wind projects on the east coast. Watters’ segments on offshore wind farms along the east coast claimed they were responsible for dozens of whale deaths in New York and New Jersey. This became a recurring talking point used by right-wing media and conservative politicians to slow renewable energy development and shape public opinion about offshore wind. 

On January 11, Watters platformed a fossil fuel industry-funded envoy flimsily disguised as an “ocean advocate” for Protect Our Coast NJ. His guest blamed recent whale deaths in New Jersey on offshore wind development. Notably, Protect Our Coast NJ and another group, Save Our Beach View, were created with the help of the libertarian think tank the Caesar Rodney Institute, which has a history of hostility toward climate and environmental policies. The institute has also received funding from the fossil fuel industry. 

In the following weeks, Fox News followed Watters’ lead and aired numerous segments insinuating that the recent deaths of whales across New York and New Jersey beaches were caused by the development of offshore wind turbines. 

The influence of Watters’ segments extended to Facebook. Media Matters looked at the most popular Facebook posts mentioning offshore wind energy from Jan 1 to March 1, and found that a clip from the segment mentioned above was included in the most popular post on Facebook during that time period, garnering 19,500 interactions at the time of the study’s publication. 

· Watters complained that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is giving wind company Orsted a tax  break to build “the same windmills that kill our whales.” “Murphy’s using federal funds to give a billion-dollar tax break to a Danish wind company to build windmills off the Jersey coast. The same windmills that kill our whales. And destroy the fishing industry. And the view. All because he wants to go green.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/11/23]

· In an interview with climate change denier Patrick Moore, who falsely claims to be the co-founder of Greenpeace, Watters said that wind turbines are “not good for the Jersey shore, for the Atlantic Ocean, and, as you said, it's not great for consumers either”: “As whales are being massacred by green tech, Greenpeace has nothing to say? ... Why aren't they chaining themselves to windmills demanding they come down? They’re just sitting in their air-conditioned offices, feet up, as the whale population drops?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/1/23]

· In the same episode, Watters said, “A lot of people think construction for these big windmill projects is just slaughtering these whales.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/1/23]

· Watters falsely claimed that “experts” think offshore wind farms are killing whales: “Last month, six whales have all washed up dead on the Jersey Shore. … Something unusual is happening to these whales. Maybe this has something to do with it. New Jersey is preparing to build massive wind farms right off the coast. And the whales are paying the price probably, these experts are saying these projects are killing these whales.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/11/23]

Watters excels at stoking right-wing culture war outrage

Watters has escalated efforts to fearmonger over various initiatives meant to update household appliances like gas stoves, washing machines, and even ovens at New York City pizza shops. Watters encapsulates the type of coverage that has proven to be immensely successful at mobilizing right-wing outrage and placing the blame for imaginary problems squarely on policies meant to combat climate change.

In June, alongside a plethora of other right-wing influencers, Watters insisted that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the New York Department of Environmental Protection were planning to eliminate authentic New York pizza. 

The story was false. Watters and other Fox News hosts fabricated it based on a New York Post article about a new rule asking pizza shops to install smoke scrubbers when using older coal and wood-fired ovens. 

One far-right activist, Scott LoBaido, stood in front of City Hall throwing pizzas as a publicity stunt. Watters had LoBaido, who has organized with the Proud Boys, on his show and called him “a hero.” Watters has attacked and distorted other policies related to climate change adaptation that could have any minor impact on the general public in order to convince Fox viewers they are victims of climate change policy rather than climate change impacts. 

· Watters met up with Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis at a pizza shop in New York City to complain about the non-existent effort to “ban coal-fired pizza ovens” because the city thinks “they’re causing global warming.” DeSantis said, “When they went after gas stoves, we just made gas stoves tax free in Florida, no sales tax. We will do something similar for these coal-fired ovens.” He added, “You have an itch on the left, they want to control behavior.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/29/23]

· Watters claimed that New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to “split up the beautiful marriage between pizza and coal-fired ovens. He is floating the idea of banning restaurants from using wood and coal ovens because that is what is going to save the environment," Watters continued. “So the vegan mayor thinks that cooking a pizza for two minutes in a coal oven is going to destroy the planet. Wrong. … What are we supposed to do? Microwave the pizza? It is going to crush small business and it’s going to crush everybody who loves good pizza.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/27/23]

· In response to a study looking at how thinner, warmer air could lead to more home runs, Watters accused liberals of ruining baseball: “Now liberals want to ruin the best part of baseball. A bunch of scientists are blaming climate change for the rise in dingers. … So home runs in recent years didn't have to do with the juiced balls, better strength and conditioning, better scouting or analytics, it's about the weather, guys. So sorry Aaron Judge, you broke the home run record because it gets hotter in July now.“ [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/14/23]

· Discussing the Biden administration’s investment in electrification, Watters claimed that electric cars and appliances will “not change the Earth’s temperature.” “They are forcing us to get a vaccine, to wear masks, enough already with the forcing. Let us choose what we want to do. But light bulbs, don't get me started. The gas stoves, don't get me started. … It is not going to lower the Earth's temperature at all. All it does is make the donors happy because this is a religion to them, and it makes my guys in Detroit happy because they sell these things, and we pay for half of it. It is the taxpayers subsidizing this green revolution.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/12/23]

· Watters suggested that climate advocates’ effort to ban gas stoves is an attack on progress while relying on a familiar Fox narrative that equates climate action with infringement on personal liberties: “Something Primetime is noticing is a relentless attack on progress. The internal combustion engine, natural gas, nuclear power, bottled water and even medicine. … Why would people want your life to be more difficult and more expensive?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/1/22]

Watters weaves racism into his environmental monologues

Staying true to his roots as an alumnus of The O’Reilly Factor, and taking cues from Tucker Carlson, Watters wove casual racism into his monologues on environmental issues. 

On that show, Watters was known for conducting racist ambush interviews. In an infamous 2016 segment, he went to New York City’s Chinatown and asked people if they knew karate, as well as asked them, “Am I supposed to bow to say hello?" The segment was roundly condemned as being disgraceful and offensive. Watters brings this same energy to discussions mocking environmental justice in an apparent attempt to justify the West’s role in climate degradation. He also launched personal attacks against Biden administration officials who play significant roles in climate and energy policy — particularly women of color — in an overtly racist way. 

· Attacking a trip that Vice President Kamala Harris took to Ghana, he accused her of being “the black face of American colonialism.”: “Everything to power the Green New Deal with. Is Kamala Harris the black face of American colonialism? Well, she is there for the lithium and cobalt. The mother load is in the Congo, and it's being mined by children as young as four.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/27/23]

· Claimed that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is only in that position because “she’s Indian American”: “The salsa maker, Deb Haaland, she's in charge of the Interior, she’s also a basket weaver and probably the dumbest woman in the cabinet and that's saying a lot, has no idea of the type of rare Earth minerals we're sitting on in this country. She doesn't even care. She's an Indian American; that's why she was put at Interior.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/30/23]

· Dismissed the idea of environmental racism: “The Chinese are the ones polluting everybody. They are the most racist, statistically.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/10/23]

· Suggested that the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was an intentional attempt to fight racism by “spilling toxic chemicals on poor people.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/14/23]

· During coverage of COP27, Watters said the U.S. should not have to help poor nations pay for climate change adaptation because “we industrialized first.” He complained that the European Union should not have put pressure on the U.S. to agree to a deal, saying, “How many world wars have we bailed the Europeans out of? And then they go shiv us in the kidneys?” Finally, he said that the U.S. should not help Pakistan recover from catastrophic flooding because “they kept Bin Laden there for a decade.” [Fox News, The Five, 11/21/22]

Watters dismisses established climate science

Watters goes out of his way to push climate change denial during extreme weather events, at the moments when the reality of climate change is most evident. As other TV news outlets are increasingly making the connection between heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and climate change, Watters often seeks to do the opposite and frames accurate coverage and crucial climate solutions as destructive and alarmist. He has even railed against public health advisories during wildfires, encouraging viewers to put themselves and their families in danger.

· While several major American cities were experiencing hazardous air quality as a result of wildfires in Canada, Watters said that “it’s normal” for the Northeastern United States to be engulfed in smoke: “So this is normal and what they're doing is they're preying on ignorance. Not everybody knows that burning forests from Canada has blacked out North America dozens and dozens of times over the last 300 years. They're banking on people not knowing that.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/8/23]

· Watters insisted that there are fewer wildfires now than 100 years ago to dismiss the role of climate change and prop up the forest management argument: “You might be surprised to find out over the last 100 years, there have been less wildfires, not more. The Wall Street Journal says in the early 1900s about 4% of land worldwide burned every year by 2021 that was down to 2.5%. So instead of obsessing over climate change, they should take a look at forest management.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/7/23]

· Attacked government officials for suggesting masking to protect against wildfire smoke and said he “didn’t listen” and doesn’t care about these advisories: “Everybody is saying stay inside, but I didn't listen,” Watters said at the top of his show over the chyron “Jesse Braves ‘Hazardous’ Air Quality.” “Why? Because I love you,” he continued. “I came into the city for you tonight. I braved the smoke so you could watch your favorite show. The air quality is hazardous. ‘Worse than 9/11.’ But, I said, I don't care. The show must go on.” Later in the segment, Watter said, “Other politicians went on TV and told us to quarantine like the good old days. … COVID, stay home and wear a mask. Smoke bomb, stay home, wear a mask. Elections, stay home, wear a mask. Nuke strike, stay home, wear a mask. The government's prepared for anything.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/7/23]

· Claimed that rain bombs aren’t real because Al Gore said they were: “Never trust an angry rich guy … And what's a rain bomb? Meteorologists are supposed to coin terms like that to scare viewers for ratings. What's next, snow nukes? Every ocean I have ever swam in has been freezing.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/18/23]

· During a heatwave in California, Watters attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his response to the heatwave: “The facts here are pretty clear and the science tells us that the biggest threat to the environment isn't climate change; it's ridiculous climate change policies.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/9/22]

· Watters also completely ignored the real impact of climate change on extreme heat, proclaiming that “the environment’s better than ever" because the polar bear population doubled and coral reefs are growing again. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/7/22]

Watters takes every opportunity to vilify climate activists no matter how ridiculous the accusation

Right-wing media have sought to frame climate protesters engaging in non-violent direct action as aggressive, violent, and mentally ill, in order to make excuses for state efforts to criminalize civil disobedience. Watters is no exception, insisting that these activists are dangerously influential — even though most of their demands have not been met — and that their goal is to “bring society back to the stone age.” He has likened climate activism to a religion that is being forced on the general public, while working for a company that broadcasts weekly Christian nationalist sermons on one of its channels. 

· Watters mocked Greta Thunberg for an apocalyptic statement she never made: “Got some bad news. We're all about to die. You heard that right. The world is ending. It was a hell of a run. Apparently, humanity only has like four and a half hours left until we are all extinct. Nothing we can do about it. Greta Thunberg said so. Five years ago Greta shared this bold prediction, quote, A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.’”  [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/22/23]

· Watters claimed without evidence that protesters trying to save Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest, which is slated to be the site of a new police training facility, were “plotting to kill cops” and that they were “all card-carrying members of Antifa.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 12/16/22]

· After Alaska’s snow crab population collapsed due in part to climate change causing a decrease in seasonal ice cover, Watters blamed “climate crazies” saying they were “holding the crabs hostage.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Tonight, 10/18/22]

· While discussing climate change protests with big oil shill Alex Epstein, Watters said “the logical conclusion” to climate activism is “human sacrifice.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/11/22]

The shake-up at Fox News will change little about the channel’s constant stream of lies. Ultimately, Watters uses similar climate denial talking points as numerous other hosts, but he has been able to wield them in a particularly damaging way that resonates with Fox’s audience and builds out the channel’s dangerous brand of misinformation.

1. Right-wing media downplay the hottest day in modern history with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature

07/11/23 9:03 AM EDT

2. Only 10% of national TV news segments about the catastrophic flooding in the Northeast mentioned climate change

07/14/23 1:3

ATTACHMENT THIRTY ONE – From Fox News

LA TIMES ARTICLE LABELED ‘PEAK CLIMATE IDIOCY’ AFTER FLOATING ‘OCCASIONAL BLACKOUT’ FOR ‘THE GREATER GOOD’

One user surmised that the Los Angeles Times was finally saying 'the quiet part out loud'

By Nikolas Lanum | Fox News

Social media users are criticizing the Los Angeles Times for a piece that wondered whether tackling climate change would be easier and less expensive if people accepted the occasional electrical grid blackout.

In a Thursday Los Angeles Times piece, writer Sammy Roth questioned what is more critical, "Keeping the lights on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or solving the climate crisis?"

Last week, lawyers representing the Sierra Club and the California city of Glendale provided arguments over whether to continue operations on a gas-fired power plant located across the Los Angeles River. The city has argued the plant is needed to avoid blackouts and catastrophes for its nearly 200,000 residents. 

The Times opined that the courtroom contention is a "highly technical dispute" and part of a larger conversation about how much "blackout risk" is considered "acceptable" in society. Additionally, the piece questioned if society's expectations should "evolve" in the name of "preventing climate catastrophe." 

BIDEN ADMIN UNVEILS SWEEPING NEW ACTIONS INCREASING COSTS FOR OIL, GAS LEASING

Experts have previously told Fox News Digital that California's electric grid faces years of potential blackouts and failure as state leaders continue pushing aggressive measures to transition to renewable energy sources. The state's grid, which is still mainly powered by fossil fuels, is shifting significantly from natural gas and coal to renewable power like wind and solar.

As part of his research, Roth asked Twitter users whether society could start cutting gas sooner and save money by "accepting a few more blackouts" over the next several years. 

"Of the hundreds of people who responded to my question, most rejected the idea that more power outages are even remotely acceptable — for reasons beyond mere convenience," Roth admitted.

For example, a former member of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's board of commissioners, Aura Vasquez, told Roth that "someone dies every time we have a power outage."

STUDY CASTS DOUBT ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES' CLIMATE, COST BENEFITS: 'WON'T ACHIEVE THE GOALS INTENDED'

Similarly, John Moura, director of reliability assessment and performance analysis at North American Electric Reliability Corp., said blackouts are "not really about keeping the light on."

"It's about keeping people alive," he said. 

Despite these concerns, Roth said he has increasingly concluded that solving climate issues will "require sacrifices" to provide for "the greater good." Such sacrifices, he hypothesized, could include driving less, eating less meat, accepting large-scale solar farms that will destroy some wildlife habitat and eating the cost of expensive rooftop paneling. 

"Maybe learning to live with more power outages shouldn't be one of those sacrifices. But at the same time, we might not have a choice," he added. 

Many social media users ridiculed the piece for considering the idea of orchestrated blackouts to curtail climate change. 

Rebutting the train of thought, media strategist and journalist Gabriella Hoffman wrote, "Ironically, it is actually net-zero policies - or decarbonization pushes - that lead to grid instability, energy insecurity, and blackout."

Junk Science Founder Steve Milloy called the article "peak climate idiocy."

Energy-related public policy analyst David Blackmon claimed the article was part of a "propaganda campaign" designed to "condition" people to believe they have no choice but to live with and accept frequent blackouts. He also suggested the LA Times was finally saying "the quiet part out loud."

"This is classic religious cult propaganda," Blackmon added. "We have seen it a thousand times down through history. And it appears the entirety of our legacy media is totally down with it."

Climate analyst Ryan Maue also weighed in on the article with a simple "yikes!"

Fox News' Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report. 

ATTACHMENT THIRTY TWO – From Fox News

ILHAN OMAR ROASTED FOR SAYING EARTH BROKE HEAT RECORD LAST SET IN 117,977 BC: 'MAKING SH-- UP'

'This is hysterical bullsh--' conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeted

By Thomas Catenacci | Fox News

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was roasted online after she tweeted Monday evening that the Earth broke a record for hottest day in 120,000 years.

Omar, who used the tweet to call for a "climate emergency" declaration, added that the record for hottest day ever was broken on three separate days. However, Omar's tweet was met with skepticism and was tagged with a Twitter community note casting doubt on the claim.

"What was the temperature of the globe at 12pm GMT on July 1st, 116,539 BC?" former White House adviser Stephen Miller responded.

"Is this satire?" added Republican Utah Senate candidate Trent Staggs, the current mayor of Riverton, Utah.

Earlier this month, local Florida outlet WFLA-TV reported that "Earth broke a record for its hottest day in 120,000 years" on concurrent days, citing the Climate Reanalyzer dashboard maintained by the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute. The tool compiles weather data stretching back to 1979 and comes with a stark warning that the data "should NOT be taken as 'official' observational records."

AOC'S PAC FUNNELED THOUSANDS TO ORG FINANCING DISRUPTIVE CLIMATE PROTEST GROUPS

In addition, the WFLA-TV report states weather record-keeping began in the 1800s and data from before that period is based on "sophisticated methods of examining copious climate clues in proxy data like tree rings, ice cores, ocean sediments, etc."

"120,000 years ago takes us back to when neanderthals were just beginning to roam the Earth, who I don't think were measuring the weather," conservative commentator Greg Price tweeted in response to Omar. "The first thermometer was invented by Galileo in 1593 and the first modern thermometer in 1714 by Gabriel Fahrenheit. She's making sh-- up."

"Okay, let’s test this claim. What was the earth’s temperature in July 20,000 years ago? Or 60,000 years ago? Or 119,000 years ago? Please provide evidence to substantiate your answers," another commentator Dinesh D'Souza tweeted.

"I called my friend who is 117,094 years old and he just confirmed this is totally true," conservative blogger Kate Hyde added.

"If you believe that we have precise daily temperature records dating back 120 thousand years, then this claim may seem credible," said Matt Walsh, a Daily Wire host. "But if you are approximately smarter than a sea sponge then you know that this is hysterical bullsh--."

STUDY CASTS DOUBT ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES' CLIMATE, COST BENEFITS: 'WON'T ACHIEVE THE GOALS INTENDED'

Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, said the "national climate emergency" demand is an excuse to do "a bunch of left wing stuff."

ATTACHMENT THIRTY THREE – From Fox News

STUDY CASTS DOUBT ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES' CLIMATE, COST BENEFITS: 'WON'T ACHIEVE THE GOALS INTENDED'

The massive push to electrify vehicles nationwide will 'have enormous economic and social costs,' report author Mark Mills tells Fox News Digital

By Thomas Catenacci Published July 18, 2023 6:00am EDT

A new report published by the Manhattan Institute threw cold water on the purported climate and cost benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) widely touted by lawmakers and automakers.

Overall, the rapid electrification of the U.S. transportation sector would increase consumer costs, make the electric grid more vulnerable to blackouts, threaten national security and may not even lead to fewer greenhouse gas emissions, according to the paper titled "Electric Vehicles for Everyone? The Impossible Dream" and authored by Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills.

"I think it's morally consequential. It's geopolitically consequential and socially, economically consequential," Mills told Fox News Digital in an interview. "The subsidies and the mandates run the risk of causing maybe the biggest misallocation of capital in modern times in the industrial markets. Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be spent chasing these mandates, requirements." 

"And it won't, as the report shows, it won't achieve the goals intended and the attempt to do so will have enormous economic and social costs because the underlying premises are either incorrect, too poorly understood or too difficult to quantify in order to take the actions that are being taken," he continued.

Mills said the government push to aggressively electrify the transportation sector over the coming years is based on the premises that it will both help the environment by lowering economy-wide carbon emissions and help save consumers money through lower fueling costs while keeping car prices co-equal with current prices.

However, Mills' report highlights that emissions and costs are subject a wide range of conditions. 

MORE THAN 150 REPUBLICANS UNITE TO CONDEMN BIDEN'S 'ILL-CONSIDERED' ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH

"It depends on when and where you charge the vehicle," he told Fox News Digital. "Then you have to add to that, the emissions that occur before you get the vehicle in your driveway for the first time because all vehicles entail CO2 emissions associated with the energy you use to build the vehicle. You use of materials and machines to build everything." 

"For an internal combustion engine, something on the order of 15 to 20% of the emissions that is associated with the vehicle over its lifetime of operating occur before you drive it," he continued. "With an electric vehicle, the share of emissions range from 15% to 100% of total lifecycle emissions. And they're far greater than the conventional vehicle because you're building a fuel tank, a battery, on difficult-to-acquire metals."

Mills added that there are "realistic scenarios" where driving an electric vehicle will cause greater global emissions than driving an internal combustion engine.

His report, meanwhile, comes as lawmakers at the federal and state level continue to take aim at traditional gas-powered vehicles while boosting EVs. 

In December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized rules targeting heavy-duty trucks that it said at the time were the "strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions" from such vehicles. The new standards went into effect on March 27 and will be implemented for new trucks sold after 2027.

Then, in April, the EPA proposed the most aggressive federal tailpipe emissions targeting light- and medium-duty emissions ever crafted. If finalized and implemented, a staggering 67% of new sedan, crossover, SUV and light truck; up to 50% of bus and garbage truck; 35% of short-haul freight tractor; and 25% of long-haul freight tractor purchases could be electric by 2032, the White House projected.

CCP-BACKED TECH COMPANIES ARE POISED TO CASH IN ON BIDEN'S CLIMATE BILL, NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERTS WARN

The EPA also reinstated in March 2022 California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to implement its own emission standards and electric vehicle sales mandates, allowing other states to also adopt California's rules. 

Months later, in August, the California Air Resources Board, a leading state environmental agency, approved regulations mandating that all car purchases in the state — which leads the country in annual car sales — are zero emissions by 2035. Overall, it is estimated that the nearly 20 states set to adopt California's regulations represent more than 40% of total U.S. car purchases.

"Ultimately, if implemented, bans on conventionally powered vehicles will lead to draconian impediments to affordable and convenient driving and a massive misallocation of capital in the world’s $4 trillion automotive industry," Mills wrote in his report.

"Imagining a hypothetical all-EV world requires acknowledging the unavoidable fact of a rats’ nest of assumptions, guesses, and ambiguities regarding emissions," he concluded. "Much of the necessary data may never be collectible in any normal regulatory fashion, given the technical uncertainties and the variety and opacity of geographic factors, as well as the proprietary nature of many of the processes."

"Those uncertainties could lead to havoc if U.S. and European regulators enshrine 'green disclosures' in legally binding ways, and it all will be subject to manipulation, if not fraud."

While President Biden has focused much of his presidency on combating climate change, he has yet to formally declare it a national emergency. A climate emergency declaration would enable Biden to bypass Congress and take a number of regulatory steps not normally authorized to the White House.

In July 2022, after reports that the president would issue such a declaration, he opted instead to issue executive orders addressing the "climate crisis," but he stopped short of an emergency declaration.

"Declaring a ‘national emergency’, especially for an international problem, doesn’t solve a thing," Benji Backer, founder of the American Conservation Coalition, said in a tweet responding to Omar. "Just look at COVID. It might do well on Twitter, but it sure isn’t a solution."

Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY FOUR – From Think Progress

THE ALARMING THING ABOUT CLIMATE ALARMISM

Bjørn Lomborg WSJ Op Ed Is Stunningly Wrong

By Greg Laden 2/2/15

Bjørn Lomborg wrote an opinion piece that is offensively wrong.

Bjørn Lomborg is the director of the conservative Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is author of two books that seem to recommend inaction in the face of climate change, Cool It, which appears to be both a book and a movie, and “The Skeptical Environmentalist.”

 This is apparently the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Copenhagen Consensus Center USA, 262 Middlesex St, Lowell MA .

He is well known as a climate contrarian, though I don’t subscribe to the subcategories that are often used to divide up the denialists. Let’s just say that if governments followed Lomborg's suggestions for addressing climate change, civilization would not do well. If you think anthropogenic global warming is for real, important, and something we can address, then you won’t like Lomborg’s ideas much. Same with energy. He gets that wrong too.

Lomborg is or was funded by the Kochtopus and its various associates.

(DJI note – The Lomborg editorial has been redacted by the WSJ paywall. Rich people can access it via the links above or scanning the date.)

ATTACHMENT THIRTY FIVE – From the New York Post

DON’T BUY THE HYPE THAT HOT WEATHER IS A MASS KILLER

By David Harsanyi July 4, 2023 6:00am

“Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard” is the first claim in a Washington Post piece warning about the deadly summer heat — and it is almost certainly false.

Similar warnings about the deadly weather appear in virtually every mainstream media outlet.

First off, the only reason “extreme” temperature kills more people than other weather hazards is that deaths from weather have plummeted over the century — even as doomsday climate warnings about heat, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts have spiked.

All extreme weather accounts for only about 0.1 death for every 100,000 people in the United States each year.

That is a massive drop from the time of your grandparents.

The Washington Post and others should be celebrating the fact that humans have never been less threatened by the climate in history.

The paper also warns that 62 million people in the United States may be “exposed” to dangerous heat “today.”

That’s a lot of people, even considering nearly all of them live in the southernmost spots in the country and it’s summer.

The Post counts anyone exposed to heat over 90 F as being in some level of danger.

Fortunately, most Americans enjoy the luxury and health benefits of air conditioning, one of the great innovations of the past century.

Nowhere in the piece, however, do the authors tell us exactly how many Americans have perished from the oppressive heat.

Anyway, it’s around 700 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — if you liberally count heat as both the “underlying” or “contributing” causes.

It is about 400 people when heat is the underlying cause.

And that’s terrible.

But, also, it’s around 3,600 fewer people than those who drown every year.

Though there has been an uptick in recent years — this is almost indeed due to an increasingly aging population that is more susceptible to heat — both numbers are still near-historic lows.

And most of those deaths, despite the WaPo’s claim, are from the cold, which is far more lethal to humans today, than it has always been.

I come to this information via another Washington Post piece that ran this very winter, which helpfully notes that for “every death linked to heat, nine are tied to cold.”

SEE ALSThat piece relies on a recent peer-reviewed Lancet study to make that claim.

Another recent peer-reviewed study in The BMJ found that “cold weather is associated with nearly 20 times more deaths than hot weather.”

Other studies have come to the same conclusion.

So where did the WaPo get the idea that heat was the leading cause of weather deaths?

After following a few hyperlinks, I land on a National Weather Service chart from 2019 that lists heat as the leading cause of extreme weather deaths.

Where it gets these numbers is a mystery to me. And though I’m sure they aren’t concocted by some bureaucrat, they certainly seem to be an outlier.

Not to worry. Even here we find promising news.

Though the National Weather Service says the leading cause of weather deaths is heat, it also found that the average was only 103 deaths per year over the preceding decade.

That’s hundreds of fewer deaths per year than the CDC reports — and hundreds fewer than die from, say, over-the-counter headache medicine overdoses.

Enjoy the summer.

PG

sonnyz93

4 July, 2023

Weather outlets and the left continue to stoke climate hysteria - they've lowered criteria for weather events to be considered severe. When I was a kid, a blizzard warning meant heavy snow, sustained high winds and temperatures below 20 degrees. Now a blizzard warning is issued almost every time th...

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S Keith

4 July, 2023

Little discussed fun climate fact: over the last half century, average temps in the Southeast US have actually declined slightly. Must be all the a/c. Whatever the reason, it's scientific fact, not theory, that they have.

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Lola TERF

4 July, 2023

AC units heat the outside air, they do not cool the outside air.

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5

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1 reply

Libby Clauwnz

4 July, 2023

it's not the heat, its this disgusting swamp ultra high dew point and humidity coming from the south. not a single dry day in weeks. harder to breathe or sleep without AC. it's nothing new, except as you get older, you feel it more. this is a horrible city to live in. it has the worst weather.

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Pitt Warner

4 July, 2023

It's supposed to reach 96 degrees today in ORL. I guess I'll just stay inside and light my fireworks in the living room. Thanks for the tip, WaPo!

S Keith

4 July, 2023

Little discussed fun climate fact: over the last half century, average temps in the Southeast US have actually declined slightly. Must be all the a/c. Whatever the reason, it's scientific fact, not theory, that they have.

Reply

23

Share

Lola TERF

4 July, 2023

AC units heat the outside air, they do not cool the outside air.

Reply

5

Share

1 reply

Libby Clauwnz

4 July, 2023

it's not the heat, its this disgusting swamp ultra high dew point and humidity coming from the south. not a single dry day in weeks. harder to breathe or sleep without AC. it's nothing new, except as you get older, you feel it more. this is a horrible city to live in. it has the worst weather.

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4

Share

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· Pitt Warner

4 July, 2023

It's supposed to reach 96 degrees today in ORL. I guess I'll just stay inside and light my fireworks in the living room. Thanks for the tip, WaPo!

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22

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· Dan Smith

4 July, 2023

I’m 72 and ran 2 miles this morning with temp 76 and 98% humidity. Felt great. I used to live in Minnesota and cross country skied 42 kilometers at -10 Fahrenheit. Give me heat!

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o Roz Bagg

4 July, 2023

You're the man, Dan!

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o Eager Beaver

4 July, 2023

I love hot weather. Lived in Dallas, TX for a couple of years and it was up to 116° and 80% humidity in the Summer.

South Florida weather during the Summer months is delightful, too.

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· Joe Potosky

4 July, 2023

At the end of the day, if elderly, an air conditioner in one room of your home/apartment can save your life.

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o Lola TERF

4 July, 2023

So will a fan and water.

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· Truth Teller

4 July, 2023

Over 1.7 million people die each year from the cold. About 300,00o people die from excessive heat each year. So clearly the cold and lack of heat in cold conditions is far more dangerous than heat.

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· DPJGENN

4 July, 2023

So we are to believe that the high heat temps are something new? Sorry, but I am 100% sure that TX and the south/southeast have had triple digit temps for generations, I can certainly remember them 20+ years ago. Are we to believe that triple digit temps didn't happen in say, 1492, 1587 or farther...

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· Carter Burger

4 July, 2023

have you noticed that our TV weather clowns never mention the air temperature much anymore in the summer? They love focusing on the 'feels like' temperature. Why is that? Because they can make the 'feels like' temperature read into the triple digits and scare people into believe in global warming...

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o Howard Goldstein

4 July, 2023

They do that here in SW Florida. The air temperature is in the lower 90's. But the so called Heat Index is 108.

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o Dubya Dubya

4 July, 2023

Good point, I have noticed that as well.

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· Lola TERF

4 July, 2023

Climate is not the weather outside your door today. Climate is the average atmospheric conditions in your area over the last 30 - 50 years. That's why when people talk about "climate change," they give the changing atmospheric conditions over decades. Interchanging the two words as this article doe...

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· John Smith

4 July, 2023

Reading the Washington Post is harmful to one's health

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o Joe DeCarlo Jr.

4 July, 2023

Definitely to one's mind.

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· Working Rich

4 July, 2023

Cold kills five times more than heat.

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o Joe DeCarlo Jr.

4 July, 2023

I believe it is 20 times, but yes, you are correct that the cold is much worse.

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· Mitchell

4 July, 2023

OMG, it is hot. Wait.....oh, its summer.

OMG, it is cold. Wait.....oh, its winter.

OMG, it's hot and it's cold. It's dry and it's wet.

Climate Change. NO, it is the seasons. Four of them.

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o JNC

4 July, 2023

Mother Nature belly laughs hysterically at these ultra left green energy climate change fools.

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· KeithB

4 July, 2023

What is the point here? Are you trying to say that because some things are worse, we shouldn't be concerned about this? Hundreds of people died from heat in Europe last summer? Does that not matter because thousands died somewhere else? From something else?

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· JintYank61

4 July, 2023

The people who insist that heat is more lethal than cold are probably pushing the "global warming" malarkey as well. However, air conditioning is one of the first "unsustainable" luxuries for the selfish masses they want to eliminate to address the "climate crisis." Which, by their own so-called ...

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o Green Dolphin

12 July, 2023

No one wants to eliminate air conditioning; in fact, it should be made available to more people who are currently living without it. However, air conditioning can be made much more energy efficient. For example, according to the EPA, geothermal [ground source] heat pumps can reduce energy consumpt...

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· Mr. Slatan

4 July, 2023

They shouldn't let some of these people smoke (whatever) and write.

According to the Texas Tribune, heat related deaths so far this year are at 279 - the highest in 2 decades. 51% were low income persons who cannot afford to run their air conditioning. SO hey, AC is great, if you have it or can afford it.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY SIX – From the Washington Post

ANCIENT SOIL SHOWS PART OF GREENLAND WAS ICE-FREE — AND COULD SOON MELT AGAIN, SCIENTISTS SAY

By Sarah Kaplan July 20, 2023 at 2:01 p.m. EDT

As soon as Andrew Christ peered at the sample inside his microscope, he knew he had found something special. Bits of tiny twigs, moss and leaves were mixed with sediments extracted from deep beneath a Cold War military facility on the Greenland ice sheet. It was as if he’d opened a time capsule from the deep past — revealing proof that a tundra ecosystem once flourished where there is now nearly a mile of ice.

But it wasn’t until years later, after Christ and his colleagues figured out the age of those samples, that he fully grasped the importance of the discovery. New analysis suggests that the material comes from a period about 416,000 years ago, when Earth’s temperature wasn’t much higher than it is now. The results mean that Greenland once lost a tremendous amount of ice under climate conditions very much like the ones humans have created and are currently living in. They imply that coastlines could soon be submerged under several feet of sea level rise — unless people manage to stop emitting greenhouse gases and reverse the dangerous warming of the world.

“If the Greenland ice sheet could melt substantially in the past, it is going to change our projections for the future,” said Christ, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vermont. “It could have a financial cost as well as a massive humanitarian cost.”

The findings published Thursday in the journal Science add to a growing body of research exposing Greenland’s vulnerability to even moderate amounts of warming. Other studies — including a preliminary analysis of Christ’s Cold War sediments published in 2021 — have showed that the ice sheet nearly vanished at least once in the past million years.

But knowing exactly when parts of Greenland were last uncovered is crucial to understanding the fate of the ice sheet today, Christ said.

For the past 2.4 million years, the climate has shifted back and forth between frigid ice ages and warmer phases known as interglacials. Unlike today’s warming, which is caused by the rapid release of planet-warming pollution from burning fossil fuels, those ancient fluctuations in the planet’s temperature were triggered by slight changes in the Earth’s orbit. Depending on the way the planet wobbled as it circled the sun, an interglacial might be hot and brief, or longer and milder.

The interglacial that occurred between 426,000 and 396,000 years ago, which is known to scientists by the unwieldy name “Marine Isotope Stage 11,” was of the long and mild variety. If plants were growing in northwest Greenland back then — as the new Science study suggests — the same could happen during a future stretch of prolonged warm conditions.

Prolonged warming is exactly what humans are causing now, Christ said. The carbon dioxide released by people driving cars, burning fuel and destroying natural ecosystems will linger in the atmosphere for thousands of years. And without a drastic shift in the way we live, humanity is on track to push global average temperatures to 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by the end of this century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That is well above the highest temperatures reached during Marine Isotope Stage 11.

Study co-author Paul Bierman, a geologist at the University of Vermont, called the implications “frightening.” When the researchers calculated how much the Greenland ice sheet would have to shrink to allow plants to grow in that particular corner of the island, they found it could lead to between 4.5 and 18 feet of sea level rise.

“If you look at where sea level was 400,000 years ago, and where humans are today, a huge number of the Earth’s population lives within that distance of sea level,” Bierman said. “It really implies that we’ve got to turn around this trajectory of pumping carbon into the atmosphere or we’re going to trigger things that are irreversible on a human time scale and grossly damaging to our planet and our people.”

Despite the sediments’ scary message, Bierman says scientists are lucky to have them. It takes so long to drill through ice that very little material has ever been uncovered from beneath the ice sheet. If not for a decades-old military boondoggle, these particular samples wouldn’t exist at all.

More than 60 years ago, amid ratcheting Cold War tensions, the United States began to dig a military base beneath the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. In public, officials claimed “Camp Century” was merely a research facility, and they invited scientists to conduct experiments at the remote location in northwest Greenland. But privately, the U.S. Army was planning “Project Iceworm” — a top-secret initiative to hide dozens of soldiers and potentially hundreds of weapons in a network of tunnels under the ice.

It didn’t take long for the motion of the ice sheet — which is constantly flowing under the pressure of its own weight — to expose the folly of this scheme. Tunnels collapsed, equipment malfunctioned and the encampment was eventually abandoned. Thousands of tons of building materials, unused diesel fuel and radioactive waste were left to languish under the ice.

The project did yield one breakthrough. To lend credibility to the camp’s scientific cover story, experts spent three years drilling a first-of-its-kind ice core at the site. Encompassing nearly a mile of ice and about 10 feet of subglacial sediment, the core helped spark the rise of a new field of research on Earth’s climatic past. By studying tiny bubbles of oxygen trapped within layers of ice, scientists were able to create a timeline of the planet’s temperature going back tens of thousands of years.

Fewer people were interested in the dirt at the bottom of the core. Over the decades, as it was shuffled between freezer facilities in the United States and Denmark, scientists largely forgot the sample existed.

This was another stroke of luck, said Tammy Rittenour, a geoscientist at Utah State University and a co-author of the study. She specializes in a kind of analysis that uses light to determine how long a material has been hidden from the sun. When sediments are buried, they are exposed to constant, low-level bombardment of radiation from the surrounding soil. This causes tiny electrons to accumulate within the molecular framework of the minerals, the way dirt might accumulate in the weave of a shirt that was never washed.

Exposing the sediments to light is like dunking the shirt in bleach — the accumulated detritus of centuries is instantly lost.

By the time the Camp Century sediments were rediscovered in a freezer at the University of Copenhagen, it was clear no one had touched the sample in decades. Working in darkroom conditions, scientists were able to carefully carve out slices for Rittenour to analyze.

At her lab, Rittenour melted the frozen sediment and sieved it to extract individual grains of the mineral feldspar. Next, she used a beam of light to “stimulate” the electrons that had long been trapped inside the minerals. By observing how the material reacted, she could calculate how much radiation it experienced during its burial, which in turn would indicate when the sediments last saw daylight.

Rittenour repeated the experiment roughly 100 times, and each go-round yielded the same estimated age: about 416,000 years, smack in the middle of Marine Isotope Stage 11.

“It’s the history of the Earth,” Rittenour said, “written in a grain of sand.”

Nicolás Young, a geologist and Arctic researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University who was not involved in the new study, said the findings offer important insight into the state of the Greenland ice sheet during Marine Isotope Stage 11. But they can’t be certain about where the island was ice-free, he said, because of the way sediments move around.

“They collected them at the Camp Century site, but they likely weren’t always resting at the Camp Century site,” Young said. “That introduces some uncertainty.”

Yet Rittenour said it’s unlikely the sediments were found far from their original source. The fragile fossilized mosses and leaves mixed in with the minerals would have been crushed if they’d been plowed by a glacier or carried by a roaring river for hundreds of miles.

Christ thought back to the people who originally collected the Camp Century core more than half a century ago. They’d journeyed to the high Arctic amid fears of nuclear annihilation — never expecting they would uncover an entirely different existential threat.

To him, the story underscores the power of science.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY SEVEN – From Time

THE LAST TIME OUR PLANET WAS THIS HOT, WOOLLY MAMMOTHS ROAMED THE EARTH

BY JEFFREY KLUGER JULY 21, 2023 10:50 AM EDT

If you could go back to the Eemian period—from 116,000 to 129,000 years ago—you’d feel right at home. OK, the woolly mammoths lumbering about might take you aback, as might the hippopotami roaming freely across what would one day be the streets of Europe. But when it comes to climate, things would not be all that different. Mean global temperatures today are about 1ºC warmer than they were in the pre-industrial era, leading to the extreme weather and other events we’ve been experiencing: heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, super storms, savage hurricanes, and more.

In the Eemian, things were warmer still, close to 2ºC hotter than in the pre-industrial era, surely leading to even more severe conditions. Individual weather events like hurricanes are too brief to be preserved in the so-called climate archive that Earth scientists use to study climate history, particularly deep cores drilled from ice sheets, the ocean floor, lake silt, and the land. But computer models coupled with the data from the cores do suggest a turbulent Eemian.

“We are not exclusively tied to the climate archive,“ says Syee Weldeab, professor of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We can run [computer] models that change [the weather] as we increase the energy in the atmosphere and the ocean.”

One study in Research Gate found that Eemian hurricanes were stronger and more northerly than those observed today—even increasing the incidence of winter storms, which lasted well beyond the contemporary hurricane season. Another, in Scientific Reports, found Eemian droughts and brush fires in Australia that lasted multiple centuries at a time. Yet more research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that the Eemian was characterized by “‘superstorms’ more intense than any observed historically.” If the Eemian is Earth’s past, it is also Earth’s portent—a potential warning of the kind of climatological upheaval we face if we allow our global temperature to creep past the 1ºC threshold to the 2ºC that defined the Eemian.

No matter how violent the Eemian was, planetary scientists today are alarmed that our current era marks the warmest the planet has been since a period that occurred so long ago. After all, it took the Eemian more than 16 millennia to unfold and fade. Human-caused climate change required less than 300 years—since the dawn of the fossil-fueled industrial age in 1760—to cause such disruption in the one world we’ve got.

“It’s amazing,” says Gifford Miller, distinguished professor emeritus of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “I think a lot of people struggle to imagine that us little, tiny human beings can actually alter the energy balance so much that it will fundamentally change the climate.”

Why the Earth Ran a Fever

Unlike contemporary climate change, the global warming and knock-on weather effects of the Eemian had little to do with greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Analysis of the archive cores indicates that the concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere back then was about 280 parts per million (ppm), according to Miller. Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the figure at an alarming 417.06 ppm. Even if humans turned off the CO2 spigot today, the emissions already in the system would continue to warm the world for decades.

So if greenhouse gasses were little more than a bit player in the extreme warming of the Eemian, what was responsible? The answer is the angle of the Earth and the relative positions of the planet and the sun. Earth does not spin evenly around its axis, but rather, can wobble like a top—a process called precession. At the beginning of the Eemian, that wobble pointed the North Pole toward the sun, slightly increasing the 23.7 degree angle the Earth usually maintains, and exposing the northern hemisphere to more sunlight than it would usually get.

“The north leaned closer to the sun,” says Miller, ”and there was about 9% more solar energy being absorbed by the planet.”

Then too, there was the proximity of the Earth and the sun. The average distance between the two bodies is 150 million km (93 million mi.). But that figure changes over the course of the year. Once every 12 months, the Earth reaches what is known as its aphelion—or furthest approach—drifting out to about 150 million km (94.5 million mi.). Six months later, it reaches its perihelion, drawing closer to 147 million km (91.4 million mi.).

But eccentricities in the Earth’s orbit can sometimes disturb this cycle. Periodically the planet will linger close to the perihelion distance—generally for a few thousand years or so. A handful of millennia are nothing on a cosmic scale, but, as with hemispheric tilt, the phenomenon can dramatically affect energy absorption. “Those two combinations,” says Miller, “a higher tilt and being closer to the sun resulted in an overall increase of 12% of the sun’s energy received.”

The Parallels Between Then and Now

That 12% made a big difference in a lot of ways similar to the ones we’re seeing with contemporary global warming. For starters, there’s the oceans, which absorb enormous amounts of heat and evaporate more water vapor in the process—a sort of feedback loop since water vapor is itself a potent greenhouse gas.

Northward migration of plant life exacerbated climate change in the Eemian too, something that ancient, preserved DNA from the Canadian Arctic revealed—and something that’s happening today as well. At temperatures warm, Arctic areas that once weren’t hospitable to trees begin to support them. Leaf canopies cover up bright, white snow, which would ordinarily reflect sunlight back into space. Instead the leaves absorb the heat, warming up the Arctic forests and causing them, like the oceans, to release temperature-raising water vapor into the atmosphere.

Then too there is the lesser-known matter of methane hydrates—again both an Eemian and likely contemporary problem. A combination of methane and water, methane hydrates usually remain in a frozen state in the deep ocean. As the ocean warms, however, the deposits thaw and separate, releasing the methane alone—another powerful greenhouse gas, allowing it to rise up in the water and escape into the atmosphere.

“There’s a long-term climatic feedback process in this,” says Weldeab, “something that amplifies the warming.”

The Eemian ultimately came to an end after the Earth straightened its tilt a little and returned to its usual aphelion-perihelion cycle; by the time that happened—13,000 years after the Eemian began—the ice from the prior glaciation had been lost. Compare that slow melt to the mere decades it’s taken human-induced climate change to do such damage to vast expanses of ice in Greenland and Antarctica and create the likelihood of an ice-free Arctic summer as early as 2030. Overall, humans have needed just 263 years, since the dawn of the Industrial Age, to create their own overheated Eemian. Unlike the last one, there is no natural process like the realignment of the planet that will step in and set things to rights. We made the mess—and it’s ours to clean up.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – From the Washington Post

INSIDE THE MOST EXTREME HEAT WAVE THE SOUTHERN U.S. HAS FACED

The exceptional heat will be remembered for its intensity and duration

By Matthew Cappucci and Dylan Moriarty July 21, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

The summer of 2023 has featured the most intense heat in modern records averaged over the planet. June was Earth’s hottest on record, and the oceans are exhibiting unprecedented warmth. Far and wide, already-exceptional weather events are being pushed into record territory by the effects of human-caused climate change.

In the Lower 48 states, global warming has manifested itself in a historically intense and prolonged heat wave, stretching from California’s interior to South Florida. The zone from Arizona to Texas has sat at the center, with record-shattering heat enduring for at least three weeks and showing little sign of relenting.

As brutal heat wave sweeps southern U.S., more records to fall

A concentrated sphere of heat, known colloquially as a “heat dome,” has powered the excessively high temperatures. Over the coming week, the heat dome will reach from coast to coast, inching northward and parking smack dab in the middle of the country. Over the next eight to 14 days, the National Weather Service is calling for above-normal temperatures nearly everywhere in the continental United States.

This massive heat dome is one of several affecting the planet, bringing all-time records in parts of Europe and in China and alarmingly hot sea-surface temperatures to the Atlantic. While heat domes form every summer, recent years have featured a string of particularly anomalous heat waves.

“Human influence has likely increased the chance of compound extreme events since the 1950s,” reads the most recent assessment from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “This includes increases in the frequency of concurrent heat waves and droughts on the global scale.”

In other words, what we’re witnessing now — multiple simultaneous record-setting heat domes globally — is exactly what scientists expect as increasing greenhouse concentrations from human activities warm the planet.

A heat dome of exceptional strength and duration

Beneath the heat dome baking the southern U.S., numerous cities have set record highs. Reno, Nev., and Grand Junction, Colo., tied all-time records of 108 and 107 degrees on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Other cities came very close. Salt Lake City fell a degree shy of its all-time record at 106 degrees, as did Las Vegas, at 116.

The nation’s most extreme temperatures have occurred in Arizona and Southern California. Death Valley, Calif., reached 128 degrees Sunday, two degrees from the highest temperature globally over the past 90 years. Meanwhile, Phoenix has tied or broken calendar day record highs seven times in eight days; it hit 119 degrees Wednesday and Thursday, its highest temperature since 2017.

Phoenix also registered its all-time warmest low temperature on Wednesday, dropping to just 97 degrees, to produce an average daily temperature of 108.0 degrees, its highest on record.

The top 10 hottest nights on record in Phoenix have all occurred in the past 20 years, despite nearly 130 years of continuous bookkeeping. That’s probably a symptom of both warming from greenhouse gas emissions and the urban heat island effect, or the expansion of buildings and paved surfaces that elevates city temperatures.

As a testament to the heat wave’s longevity, Phoenix has reached a high of at least 110 degrees on a record 21 straight days, while its low has been at or above 90 degrees on a record 11 nights in a row. Weather models in Weather models indicate there’s a chance that Phoenix will continue its string of 110-degree highs through at least the end of the month.

Phoenix is also on pace to be the first American city to have an average temperature of 100 degrees or greater for any calendar month.

It’s not just Phoenix that can’t shake the heat. El Paso has reached at least 100 degrees on a record 35 straight days and counting; the city’s previous record was 23 days during a streak back in midsummer of 1994.

New Orleans, which hasn’t received as much attention as locations to the west, is heading for its warmest summer on record. The brutal heat has routinely combined with oppressive humidity to push heat indexes into the 100-to-108-degree range.

And in Florida, Miami has had 40 days in a row with a heat index over 100, during which there was a 16-day stretch when heat index values eclipsed 105. The previous records for both were 32 days and eight days, respectively.

Simply stated, there are no analogues, or comparable heat waves, in the data that rival the unusual synergy between intensity and duration that the Southern U.S. is facing right now.

Heat around the world

The Southern U.S. isn’t alone. Three other heat domes have been shattering records globally:

· A European heat dome helped Rome spike to 109 degrees on Tuesday; the city’s previous record was 105. All-time heat records were also set in Spain.

· In Asia, Sanbao, China, hit 126 degrees Sunday, a national record. It represented the highest temperature ever observed north of 40 degrees north latitude.

· A heat dome over the Atlantic has contributed to record warm water temperatures. The margin by which the record has been achieved is staggering, too. The North Atlantic’s average temperature is a little more than 1 degree warmer than the previous record holder.

A climate connection

Hot weather, and even extremely hot weather, is expected during the summer. But the human influence on the climate system is supercharging extremes.

“If global warming increases, some compound extreme events with low likelihood in the past and current climate will become more frequent,” warned the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “There will be a higher likelihood that events with increased intensities, durations and/or spatial extents unprecedented in observational record will occur.”

In plain language, things that we haven’t seen before — including from a magnitude and duration standpoint — are now entering the realm of physical possibility, and will only become more severe as the climate warms further.

More on extreme heat

Our warming climate: As more heat records are expected to fall, July will be Earth’s hottest month on record. Here’s why the sweltering heat wave isn’t moving anytime soon. At Earth’s hottest spots, heat is testing the limits of human survival. Look up your city to see your extreme heat risk with our tracker. Take a look at what extreme heat does to the human body.

How to stay safe: It’s better to prepare for extreme heat before you’re in it. Here’s our guide to bracing for a heat wave, tips for staying cool even if you don’t have air conditioning, and what to know about animal safety during extreme heat. Traveling during a heat wave isn’t ideal, but here’s what to do if you are.

Understanding the science: Sprawling zones of high pressure called heat domes fuel heat waves. Here’s how they work. You can also read more about the link between weather disasters and climate change, and how leaders in the U.S. and Europe are responding to heat.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY NINE – From the Guardian U.K.

‘WE CAN’T ESCAPE’: CLIMATE CRISIS IS DRIVING UP COST OF LIVING IN THE US WEST

Extreme weather, fueled by global heating, is affecting energy, water, insurance premiums and food and housing costs

By Maanvi Singh in Oakland Fri 21 Jul 2023 09.00 EDT

Minerva Contreras can’t keep up with the bills.

Recently, after a series of extreme heatwaves in California forced her family to run the AC, her monthly electricity costs rose to about $500. Her water bill averages around $100, but because the water is contaminated with pesticides from nearby agricultural fields, her family spends an additional $140 each month to purchase jugs of drinking water. Her grocery bills have gone up as well, after a spate of winter storms disrupted harvests across the state.

“Practically, about one week’s paycheck goes toward rent, the next week’s toward the electrical bill, and the third week’s toward the gas and water bills and the remaining for everything else,” said Contreras, a farm worker who lives with her husband and two sons in small, agricultural town of Lamont. “We just can’t keep up.”

Here, in what is already one of the most expensive states in the US, the climate emergency is driving up the cost of living. Extreme weather, drought and drastic swings in temperature, all fueled by global heating, are affecting utility costs and insurance premiums, exacerbating housing shortages and causing food prices to go up.

These issues are echoed throughout the US and the globe, as relentless heat and smoke pollution from wildfires push communities across the southern US, Europe and Asia to their limits. The health and economic impacts of the spate of extreme weather will become clearer in the months to come.

But in California, the cost imposed by the disquieting recurrence of climate-related disasters that more and more countries are faced with have already become untenable for many. Nearly half of the state’s residents say they struggle to save money or pay for unexpected expenses, according to a recent poll by a consortium of local non-profits. Many families are just one fire or flood away from financial ruin.

“We don’t see a future here, and it’s a shame we can’t escape either,” Contreras said. “Where would we go?”

‘We put up with a lot of heat’

As temperatures in Lamont this week topped 113F (45C), Contreras worried about how much her family might have to run the AC. “We are usually very careful and try not to,” she said. “We put up with a lot of heat before we turn it on.”

Each summer for the past few years, Contreras’s family has fallen behind on their electricity bills. Each year, they sign up for repayment plans and manage to pay down their arrears by February or March, only to fall behind again as the warmer season begins.

Her family is not alone. California residents are increasingly facing higher electricity prices, at a time when extreme weather is making energy demands go up. Utility rates in the state are already among the highest in the US, with California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) finding that since 2013, rate increases have outpaced inflation.

We don’t see a future here, and it’s a shame we can’t escape either. Where would we go?

One major reason is that electricity companies have faced increasing wildfire mitigation expenses like clearing vegetation around power lines and higher wildfire insurance costs and they have passed the charge on to consumers. Meanwhile, utility companies such as PG&E have also been allowed to pass on the liability costs of sparking some of the state’s most destructive wildfires.

For many households, the price increases mean dire choices, said Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at the University of California, Irvine. A survey by researchers at Columbia University found that nearly 30% of households in California kept their homes at a temperature that was unhealthy or unsafe to save on energy costs. “When you overlay existing social, economic and health disparities with climate change and extreme weather, that exacerbates inequalities,” Méndez said.

“People are not only facing a rise in costs, but also increased variability in costs,” said Alan Barreca, a professor at the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at UCLA.

Barreca and his colleagues have found that for each August day when the temperature was 95F or higher, the chance that a low-income family would fall behind on bills and have their power disconnected increased by 1.2%.

A new proposal to adjust electricity fees based on their income could help, Barreca said. Researchers and advocacy groups have also proposed offering adjusted rates and discounted electricity during extreme weather events and establishing a rental right to cooling.

High water costs ‘deepening the inequities’

Climate change is taxing the water supply as well as the electrical grid. One in eight households across California are behind on their water bills, owing about $1bn altogether, as cycles of lengthy drought dwindle water supplies. A survey by the state’s water board found that households in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods were more likely to be in arrears.

“With water, the existing system was already not working,” said Rachel Cleetus, a climate and energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy organization. (See Attachment Twenty Five)

“And now it’s really falling apart in the face of the pressures from climate change.”

Due to a complex and outdated water rights system that in many areas favors big agriculture over communities and ageing, ailing infrastructure, many of the state’s poor and rural communities have struggled to access adequate drinking water, she said. Then, in recent years, long stretches of drought have caused shortages and spiked prices. Wildfires and a series of catastrophic floods this winter have caused further complications, tainting water supplies and damaging critical infrastructure.

Contreras and her family, who have lived in Lamont for about 12 years, have been informed year after year that the stuff coming out of their taps isn’t safe for consumption due to a legacy of pesticide pollution seeped in the groundwater system. In other parts of the Central valley, chronic overpumping has depleted water, and left homeowners with dry wells. Hundreds of families in the San Joaquin valley continue to receive water deliveries by truck, despite a winter of record-setting precipitation.

“California already has a huge challenge with inequity,” according to Rachel Cleetus, a climate and energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists (see Attachment Twenty Five). “It has a high poverty rate. There’s already an affordable housing crisis in the state. And these kinds of climate risks are just adding an additional layer of risk, and deepening the inequities.”

‘Felt really vulnerable about losing my home’

In the small, rural town of Midpines, at the south-western edge of Yosemite national park, Beth Pratt says she has seen the climate crisis reshape her community. Last year, the explosive Oak Fire burned nearly 100 homes here.

“In my work as a conservationist, I advocate for wildlife who are threatened because of climate change. Now we’re starting to feel that same vulnerability,” said Pratt, who is the regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. “This is the first time I felt really vulnerable about losing my home.”

Last month, the state’s largest property insurance companies – Allstate and State Farm – announced that they will no longer sell new policies in California, citing the growing risk of catastrophes. The news came as renters and homeowners across the state were quietly dropped by insurance companies, or were facing unaffordable premiums.

This month, not long after Allstate announced it would halt new policies in the state, Pratt got notice that the company would not be renewing her existing policy.

That was despite the fact that Pratt had spent about $100,000 to harden her home against fire. She invested in fire-rated metal siding for the house, redid her redwood decks in ember-resistant laminate and metal railings. She purchased a 2,500-gallon tank with a fire hose hookup, and this year, she spent $10,000 to hire a crew to clear trees and overgrowth.

When the letter from Allstate came, telling her that even all that was not enough to keep her home insured, Pratt was flabbergasted. “I mean, $100,000 is not something the average person has,” she said. “I don’t really have it – on a non-profit salary. I had to refinance my mortgage to afford this.”

Most of her neighbors are facing the same issue, she said – they’ve either lost their insurance already, or expect to lose it soon. After the record-breaking 2020 fire season, the number of Californians who were told by their insurer that their policy wouldn’t be renewed increased by about 30%.

The only remaining option for Pratt and her neighbors is the state’s Fair plan, a limited insurance plan for those who cannot find coverage through a private company. It will cost Pratt double what she was paying Allstate.

Moving and buying elsewhere isn’t financially feasible – and besides, Pratt said, she’s lived in this small community for 25 years. “We can’t just move away from the climate crisis.”

‘Everywhere in California is the same’

In fact, many poor and middle-class families are being forced to move to areas that are feeling the impact of climate crisis more intensely. “The housing affordability crisis in California is pushing people out of cities and increasingly out, into locales with a higher risk for extreme heat, higher risk for drought and wildfires,” says Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at the University of California, Irvine. Méndez.

In the towns of Planada and Pajaro, farm workers without flood insurance or access to unemployment aid saw their homes and life savings wiped out by floods this winter. Aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) wasn’t enough to cover the cost of materials, let alone labour, to rebuild.

Agricultural workers in the central coast and Central valley, who harvest the bulk of produce grown in the state and in the country, were out of work for weeks. Planted fields of summer fruit were wiped out and shortages drove up already inflated grocery prices this year.

In Lamont, where daily highs are predicted to remain above 100F (37.7C) through the end of the month, the Contreras family has resigned to another year of debt. Because it is unsafe to work in the fields after 11am on most days, Contreras’s husband has had his work hours cut. Normally he would pick up extra work in the tangerine or grape fields, but the weather has disrupted those harvests as well.

Recently, the family had to sign up for a second repayment plan for their electrical bills. “It’s depressing,” Contreras said. “The bills just keep accumulating.”

The family thinks about moving, but can’t think of where they could live affordably. “Everywhere in California, we see that it’s the same,” she said.

ATTACHMENT FORTY – From GUK

‘IT’S BRUTAL’: EUROPEANS TELL OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND DIZZY SPELLS IN HEATWAVE

People in Italy, Spain and Greece describe their day-to-day struggles in soaring temperatures

By Clea Skopeliti Sat 22 Jul 2023 07.00 EDT

With sea temperatures in the high 20s, open-water swimmer Grabiela Rojas feels it isn’t safe to train in the ocean near Valencia this summer.

Rojas, 35, is instead training by swimming laps in an indoor pool, rather than long distances in the ocean. “It’s way too hot in the water,” she says of Spain’s coastal waters, which have hit new records for this time of year. “There’s a point where you can’t cool down. It’s brutal.”

Rojas tried to train in the sea a couple of times about three weeks ago, but says it felt dangerous. The water offered no respite from the heat. “It’s so humid and then you get into the water and it’s like stepping into a soup. After five minutes I was out of breath, felt dizzy, panicked a bit and got out. I decided that I’m not going to go back until September, or whenever it cools.”

Rojas says she installed solar panels at home this year, allowing her and her husband to keep it affordably cool. “We’ve been running [air conditioning] non-stop because it’s free. Last year, we were way more conscious because we didn’t want to have a €500 electricity bill.”

However, the unit in the bedroom broke last week, and waiting for the repair has been miserable. “I can’t function if I can’t sleep in a comfortable environment. The fan doesn’t help. [My husband and I] are sleeping in separate rooms because another body of heat is too much.

“I just try not to go out. Last year, I would go out at night for a walk – now I just don’t want to. Going outside feels like a punishment.”

A fourth heatwave is forecast for southern Europe next week, leaving people in the region with little chance to recover from the last one, which saw parts of Sicily reach 47C (117F).

In an attempt to escape the heat, Rosalyn Smith, a sales representative near the northern Italian city of Pavia, has gone up to her shack in the hills of Varzi. But even at the elevated altitude, conditions are proving difficult for the 67-year-old, who has lived in Italy for 35 years. “I went to a higher altitude but the heat and the mosquitoes have followed, which is so unusual. I’ve been bitten terribly. There were a few last year, but five years ago there were none at this altitude.”

She says being kept indoors by the prolonged extreme temperatures feels reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic. “It’s like being in lockdown again. It brings back the old feeling of staying out as little as possible. The heat stops you from thinking straight. I’m having sleepless nights – I keep turning the pillow over.”

Smith says the summers have changed since she moved to Italy more than three decades ago. “It’s a completely different thing. The intense heat starts earlier and goes on for longer. In Italy, they call it la bella stagione – the beautiful season. It no longer is. I can’t wait for summer to be over.”

Noelia Rubio, 43, a shop owner in Madrid, is struggling with fatigue as the Spanish summer stretches on. During the summer months, she sleeps in a room in the basement of her home because it is cooler. “[But] it is still hard to fall asleep because it gets hot in an instant when you lie down … and once asleep you sweat through the night. We are all sleep deprived; you get up in the morning already tired. This goes on for two to three months every year and the season is getting longer.

“We used to joke we had like a week of spring and a week of autumn weather. No longer the case: summer now starts in May and ends in October.” Whereas she used to sleep in the basement between late June and late August, last year she didn’t return to her bedroom until the end of October.

“You can get used to the heat but it is still easy to get dehydrated and get a headache even if you are indoors. I think everyone’s health is affected. The heat is not a problem when you are on holiday but in your everyday life, when you are working … it is really frustrating.”

Others say heat stress is causing them to lose work. CB, a bicycle food courier in Budapest, cancelled shifts early this week in fear for his health. “Financially, I’m going to feel the burn next month when I get paid, but I feel it was worth it because I don’t want to get heatstroke.” The 32-year-old recently moved from the US to Hungary to be close to his father.

During an earlier heatwave in the city, the courier believes he experienced symptoms of heatstroke. “I had chest pains and was delirious on my bike. Even at night I couldn’t properly cool down – I don’t have AC; it’s not really a thing here in Hungary. One of my colleagues is also struggling. We talk when waiting for orders. I’ve noticed there’s less couriers on the road,” he says, though he is uncertain whether that is due to the heat.

Francesco, a paramedic in Milan, is also feeling the physical and psychological impact of the heat. “Usually, I don’t suffer from the climate – I’m quite adapted. It’s the first time in my life that the heat is a problem. Near the end of shifts, I feel the psychological effect of extreme heat – my brain wasn’t working properly. I feel always tired and I am more irritable.”

“The air in the city is so hot that even when I start my shift at 6am I arrive at work drenched in sweat and I must have a shower before starting. As soon as I start working my uniform becomes a suffocating moisture trap and I am soon drenched in sweat again. Many times I have to call other ambulances [for] support because I don’t have the strength necessary to lift and move patients.”

Temperatures in the city have become noticeably more extreme in recent years, according to Francesco. “I can perceive the difference in temperature from the [central] point in the city and outside the city. In the ‘eye’ of the city, it is like being in a furnace.”

Extreme heat may affect older people more than others, and while visiting her mother-in-law in the Athens metropolitan area this week, Jen Rouse, 38, was concerned for the 73-year-old’s wellbeing. “I worry a lot about the impact this heat is having on my mother-in-law’s health, particularly with the increased risk of wildfires. The last time there was a fire near Athens the air quality in her flat was appalling,” says Rouse, a copywriter from Hastings.

Like Smith in Italy, Rouse also notes the climate-related issue of mosquitoes. She says she was bitten by a tiger mosquito – an invasive mosquito species increasingly found in European countries – in Athens for the first time.

As well as concerns for her mother-in-law, Rouse says she is worried about the impact of heat stress on her eight-year-old daughter while in Greece. “Our daughter came over dizzy on the first day and we had to retreat to an air-conditioned pharmacy to sit down,” she says. “Its just crazy with these temperatures and we haven’t even hit August yet.”

ATTACHMENT FORTY ONE – From Guardian U.K.

‘HERE FOR THE HEAT’: DEATH VALLEY SIZZLES, BUT THE TOURISM DOESN’T STOP

National park has seen remarkable temperatures this summer with some intentionally, and some accidentally, caught in the heatwave

Amanda Ulrich in Death Valley national park Sat 22 Jul 2023 10.00 EDT

Around every desolate curve of road in Death Valley national park, official signs warn of peril.

“Heat kills!” cautioned one flyer at popular Zabriskie Point, as tourists streamed by on Thursday afternoon to marvel at a dramatic vista beyond. A photo of a red tombstone completed the dire message: “Don’t become a Death Valley victim.”

Death Valley is hardly a stranger to elemental extreme and has long attracted those drawn to the edge. The park bills itself as the “hottest, driest and lowest” – the hottest place on Earth, the driest place in the United States and the lowest point in North America. Visitors make the trek there from around the world to experience its surreal, lunar-looking landscapes and dramatic temperature swings. A famously difficult ultramarathon, the Badwater 135 sees runners race across the cracked salt flat of the park each July.

But even by Death Valley standards, this has been a remarkable summer. The park, which set the world record for the hottest air temperature (a withering 134F, or 56.67C) more than a century ago, approached modern heat records this week. An excessive heat warning, involving daytime temperatures “well over” 120F and nighttime averages still hovering around the triple digits, remains in effect until Sunday.

The grim weather warnings come at a critical time. Two people have died in Death Valley amid the recent heat wave, including a 71-year-old man who collapsed this Tuesday after hiking near Golden Canyon, where a sign reminded visitors that in a heat-related emergency, “rescue in time is not a guarantee”. Earlier this month, a 65-year-old was found dead in his car from “apparent heat illness”.

The temperature in Death Valley will also likely become even more intense in the era of climate crisis; nine of the park’s 10 hottest summers have been in the last 15 years, the visitor center reports. “With global warming, such temperatures are becoming more and more likely to occur,” Randy Ceverny, of the World Meteorological Organization, told the Guardian this week.

Still, many Death Valley visitors have been undeterred by the blistering heat this month – and some are even choosing to visit for that exact reason.

This week, tourists congregated around a display thermometer in front of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, posing for photos as the temperature ticked from 123F to 124F. The impenetrable wall of desert heat, a shock to the system after being inside a chilled car, forced each group into the shelter of the visitor center after only a minute or two.

Paul Blum and his family, who were visiting the park from France, said they planned their trip months ago to take advantage of summer holidays. But the night before their drive to Death Valley from Las Vegas, Blum had a brief moment of hesitation.

“I thought, ‘Is it reasonable to drive through Death Valley with two kids?’” he said. “But it’s a new car, so I hope so. With an old car I wouldn’t try.”

Tourism heats up with temperatures

At Last Kind Words Saloon, one of the only watering holes in the national park’s central hub of Furnace Creek, the stiff air conditioning offers a reprieve from the sun. As the day’s heat rested around 120F on Thursday afternoon, visitors began to trickle in for steaks and cold drinks.

A server at the Last Kind Words Saloon, one of the only watering holes in the national park’s central hub of Furnace Creek, Alan California (“Alan from California,” he said, explaining the name displayed on his name tag), said that earlier this summer, business seemed to be slower.

“But since the heat has picked up drastically lately, we’ve actually gotten busier,” he said of the past week. “For some reason, people want to be out here for the heat.”

Alan, who stays in Furnace Creek for part of the week and commutes back to his home an hour away the rest of the time, said he makes sure to stay indoors during midday. “People just don’t know how the heat can affect you if you’re not used to it,” he said.

While it may seem ill-advised to experience the hottest place on Earth during the hottest season of the year, Abby Wines, a Death Valley spokesperson and park ranger, said that March, April, July and August are Death Valley’s busiest times, with roughly 100,000 visitors each month.

But those who choose to visit this time of year do so for several different reasons, she said. The first category of visitors is made up of tourists from other countries, like the Blum family from France, who are merely planning a summer vacation and wind up in Death Valley during a heat wave.

“They’ve planned their vacation months in advance, so they couldn’t say, ‘Oh, [the park] might break a heat record on this particular weekend, let’s go then,’” Wines said.

And then there are the heat-seekers.

“Some people do come intentionally when the news says, ‘Death Valley might break a record,’” she said. This past week, for instance, a 52-year-old man wearing a Darth Vader costume embarked on a one-mile run through the park, an almost annual feat that he saves for the hottest day of the year, at the hottest time of the day.

For some reason, people want to be out here for the heat

Wines said she wouldn’t tell visitors to stay away entirely, she warns tourists to “take the heat seriously” and take many precautions, such as staying close to a cool shelter and avoiding going out during the hottest part of the day.

“Rescue is impossible when it’s extremely hot,” she said. If a visitor chooses to hike far away from a trailhead and ends up collapsing, she added, that puts the park’s employees, who would need to hike after them, in danger. Rescue helicopters also can’t fly in extreme heat because of how it changes air density, as was the case with the 71-year-old hiker who died this week, officials said.

“A number one rule of safety,” Wines said of rescue missions, “is to make sure it’s safe enough before you put other people at risk.”

Braving the heat

Back at the visitor center, Zhebeau Beasley from Ohio landed more firmly in the category of visitor who booked their trip earlier and then ended up in a heatwave.

“People [told me], ‘Good luck out there man, it’s supposed to be record heat,’” he said. “It kind of caught us off guard the first day we stepped out into it.”

Certain activities, like hiking, are off the table for Beasley while he’s visiting the national park.

“Who in their right mind would hike this time of the year? Other than David Goggins, I don’t know who else would do it,” he said, referencing a runner who has completed the Badwater 135 several times.

And despite the near record-breaking temperatures, the national park buzzed with activity late into the day Thursday. Families bought t-shirts and bottles of water at the visitor center and couples braved the heat long enough to get out of their cars at designated overlooks.

After all, for many people the trip was months, or years, in the making. Visitor Abdul Munif said he and a handful of his family members had flown about 16 hours from the Arabian Peninsula to be there.

“Feels like home,” Munif joked, looking out from Zabriskie Point, which required walking up a dauntingly steep path into the afternoon sun. Visible heat waves rippled the air. “I think we’re used to it.”

ATTACHMENT FORTY TWO – From Forbes

PHOENIX RECORDS THREE-PLUS WEEKS ABOVE 110 DEGREES: HERE’S WHERE ELSE DAILY RECORDS HAVE FALLEN

Brian Bushard July 23, 2023, 12:30pm EDT

An unrelenting series of summer heat waves have shattered single-day temperature records throughout the South and Southwest this summer, breaking longstanding records in major cities across the country, as “dangerously” hot conditions linger this week from California to Florida.

A month in weather...

July 22Salt Lake City set a daily record high with thermometers reading 105 degrees, while Phoenix set yet another daily record high at 118 degrees—marking 23 straight days with daily highs in the city above 110 degrees.

July 21El Paso, Texas, broke its daily record for the fifth straight day, with a daily high of 107.

July 20Phoenix extended its streak of 110-plus-degree days to 21, breaking yet another daily temperature record at 115 degrees, while Flagstaff, Arizona, set a daily record at 90 degrees, according to National Weather Service data.

July 19Phoenix broke its latest in a string of daily temperature records amid a historic heat wave in the Southwest, with the temperature at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport reaching 119 degrees, the hottest day since 2017 and the city’s fourth hottest day on record—Flagstaff, Arizona, also set a daily record at 92 degrees, as did El Paso, Texas (111), Tucson, Arizona (112) and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (98).

July 18Phoenix set a record for most days in a row with highs of 110 degrees or higher, reaching the mark for the 19th consecutive day, with temperatures hitting 118 degrees—a daily record—while Death Valley broke its daily record at a staggering 128 degrees, Tucson, Arizona, broke its daily record at 112, Las Vegas set a daily record (100) and Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas, both broke daily records at 107, 101, 109, 110 and 104 degrees, respectively.

July 17Las Vegas broke a daily record at 96 degrees, while Flagstaff, Arizona, broke its record (94) and four Texas cities—San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and Fort Worth—broke their daily records at 104, 108, 109 and 108, respectively.

July 16Salt Lake City surpassed its daily record high, when the temperature hit 106 degrees, while Santa Rosa, California, tied a daily record (99 degrees), Flagstaff, Arizona, broke its daily record (96 degrees), as did Corpus Christi, Texas (103 degrees), Mobile, Alabama (98), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (100), Austin, Texas (106), El Paso, Texas (105), Sacramento (109) and Reno, Nevada (108)—Carson City, Nevada, shattered its previous daily record of 99 degrees at a blistering 105.

July 15Flagstaff, Arizona, tied a daily record high at 89 degrees.

July 14Two major Texas cities tied their daily high temperature records, with San Antonio hitting 105 degrees and Waco reaching 104, while Fort Worth, Texas, broke its daily record at 106 and Phoenix tied its daily high at 116.

July 13Phoenix set its latest daily high temperature record at 114 degrees, following a string of daily temperature records in the city, while Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tied its daily record at 99 degrees.

July 12Phoenix tied a daily temperature record at a high of 114 degrees, tying a record set in 2020.

July 11Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tied its daily high temperature, at 96 degrees.

July 8Miami broke its daily temperature record for the fourth-straight day and for the fifth time over just six days, at 96 degrees.

July 6Tucson, Arizona, set a record daily high, with thermometers reading 110 degrees, breaking the city’s previous record by one degree.

July 5Portland, Oregon, reached a sweltering 98 degrees, breaking the city’s daily record high by two degrees, while Vancouver, Washington, and Eugene, Oregon, also set daily highs, at 96 and 99 degrees, respectively, and El Paso, Texas, broke a daily record at a whopping 107 degrees.

July 4Tampa set a daily record high again with thermometers reading 97 degrees—July 4 was the planet’s hottest day in nearly 125,000 years, at 62.92 degrees, according to the University of Maine Climate Change Institute.

July 1Tampa broke its daily record (99 degrees), while Stockton, California, broke its record by one degree (109) and Sacramento tied its record (109).

June 30Multiple cities across the country tied their daily record highs, including Tampa (96 degrees), Corpus Christi, Texas (98), and Billings, Montana (99).

June 29Miami set its second-consecutive daily temperature record at 95 degrees, while Fort Worth, Texas, narrowly hit a record daily high at 103 degrees and New Orleans broke another daily record at 100 degrees—marking the first time the temperature has reached triple-digits at the city’s airport in seven years.

June 28Roswell, New Mexico, set another daily high at 112 degrees, the city’s second hottest day on record, while Miami broke another daily record with a temperature of 95 degrees.

June 25As the heat wave stretched east, New Orleans set a new daily record at 98 degrees, beating its former high of 97 set last year.

June 24Roswell, New Mexico tied its daily heat record with a high of 110 degrees set in 1990, while San Antonio for the second straight day tied its daily record (102).

June 23San Antonio tied its daily heat record at 102 degrees, while Laredo set another daily record (109).

June 22Corpus Christi, McAllen and Laredo continued to break record daily high temperature records (103, 105 and 114 degrees, respectively).

June 21The Florida Keys tied a daily high temperature record at 94 degrees, while St. Paul, Minnesota, broke a daily record (91), Corpus Christi, Texas, broke a daily record (100) and Houston tied its daily record (99).

June 20Laredo and McAllen broke daily records again, at 114 and 106 degrees, respectively, while Austin set another daily record (106) and Midland broke its daily record (109).

June 19Records were smashed across Texas during a heat wave, with new daily highs hit in San Antonio (105 degrees) and McAllen (107), while Austin tied its prior daily record of 106 degrees, according to the National Weather Service and Laredo tied an all-time record-high temperature for the city (115)—Laredo broke another daily record on June 13 (111 degrees).

June 16Miami broke a daily record with a temperature of 95 degrees—toppling a record that had stood for 12 years—while Fort Lauderdale broke a daily heat record (95 degrees).

June 3Cincinnati broke a daily high record that had been set in 1951 (93 degrees).

June 2Hartford also saw a daily record (94 degrees), beating a record set in 1961 by 3 degrees and Philadelphia narrowly beat a 23-year record (95 degrees), while temperature records also fell in the Midwest, including in St. Louis (93 degrees) and Detroit (90 degrees).

June 1Buffalo set daily temperature records on consecutive days to start off the month (90 degrees), while Syracuse, New York, set a record at 91 degrees, and Fargo, North Dakota, set a daily record at 97 degrees.

An excessive heat warning is in effect in Arizona, southern California and parts of Nevada, with heat advisories in effect throughout the South and Southwest, bringing “dangerously hot conditions” and a heat index—how hot it feels outside when humidity is taken into consideration—into the 120s and 130s in some areas. Forecasters urged residents to stay hydrated in air-conditioned rooms, avoid strenuous outdoor activity and take “extra precautions” while outside.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

More daily heat records. Forecasters warn southwestern cities, including Phoenix—which is in the midst of an unrelenting multi-week heat wave—could continue to set records this week, while heat warnings could keep toppling daily records from California to Florida.

Forecasters expect the early-season heat waves to be a sign of things to come, as a weather phenomenon called El Niño develops, bringing warmer air north, and as scientists warn the effects of climate change from greenhouse gas emissions will continue to drive temperatures upward, prolong drought conditions and make wildfires more frequent and strong. Roughly 1,500 cities and towns in the U.S. broke daily heat records over a 30-day period ending last September, as heat waves spread throughout the U.S., as well as the U.K. and southern Europe. So far this year, a heat wave in China took down single-day records in China, while in the U.K., forecasters are warning of the hottest year on record.

A scorching 119-degree high at Big Bend National Park in west Texas on June 23 came within one degree of tying an all-time temperature record for the state of Texas, which was set in 1936.

FURTHER READING

Texas Braces For Scorching Early Summer Heat Wave — Here's Where Temperatures May Break Records (Forbes)

July 4 Was Earth’s Hottest Day In Over 100,000 Years—Breaking Record For 2nd Day In A Row (Forbes)

Sacramento And San Jose Break All-Time Heat Records: These Are The Key Record-Breaking Temperatures For Summer 2022 (Forbes)

ATTACHMENT FORTY THREE – From the El Paso Times

Desert terrain, extreme heat: Migrant deaths surge in Sunland Park

More than 70 migrants have died in Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, including at least 14 in Sunland Park since May amid record heat.

ATTACHMENT FORTY FOUR – From CNN

TOURISTS FLEE RHODES WILDFIRES IN GREECE’S LARGEST-EVER EVACUATION

By Duarte Mendonca, Chris Liakos and Elinda Labropoulou, CNN Updated 1:38 PM EDT, Sun July 23, 2023

A large wildfire tearing through the Greek island of Rhodes forced thousands of tourists to flee their hotels in what Greek officials said was the largest evacuation effort in the country’s history.

Those caught up in the blaze described chaotic and frightening scenes, with some having to leave on foot or find their own transport after being told to leave.

The wildfire in the central and south part of Rhodes – a hugely popular island for holidaymakers – has been burning since Tuesday. It is the largest of a number of blazes in Greece, which is sweltering due to a heat wave that experts say is likely to become the country’s longest on record.

Amy Leyden, a British tourist in Rhodes, said she was told to leave her hotel immediately or her and her family “would not make it.”

“It was just terrifying,” she told Sky News. “We’ve got our 11-year-old daughter with us and we were walking down the road at two o’clock in the morning and the fire was catching up with us.”

Cedric Guisset, a Belgian tourist, fled Saturday with nowhere to go. “We told the hotel about the messages we had received on our phones to evacuate the area, but they didn’t even know about it,” he told public radio station RTBF.

“We really just took our identity cards, water and something to cover our faces and heads.”

The Greek government said nearly 19,000 people had been evacuated on Rhodes since Saturday.

Italy’s northern region of Veneto was pounded with tennis-ball sized hail overnight on Wednesday, injuring at least 110 people. Emergency services responded to more than 500 calls for help due to damage to property and personal injuries, the Veneto regional civil protection said.

The country also experienced record-breaking heat, with capital Rome hitting a new high temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Earlier in the year the country was hit by devastating floods.

In the Balkans, severe thunderstorms storms claimed several lives after hitting on Wednesday, CNN’s affiliate N1 reported Thursday.

Scientists are warning that the extreme weather may only be a preview of what’s to come as the planet warms.

“The weather extremes will continue to become more intense and our weather patterns could change in ways we yet can’t predict,” said Peter Stott, a science fellow in climate attribution at the UK Met Office told CNN.

CNN’s Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.

ATTACHMENT FORTY FIVE – From ABC

SEVERE HEAT FORECAST: WHERE SCORCHING TEMPERATURES WILL PERSIST OVER THE NEXT WEEK

Dangerous heat will continue to plague a large portion of the U.S.

ByJulia Jacobo and Kenton Gewecke July 23, 2023, 11:57 AM

An unrelenting heat dome continues to hover over the western United States this weekend, prompting heat alerts for tens of millions of residents.

Heat advisories and warnings were issued for 40 million Americans across 10 states on Sunday, with the highest temperatures concentrated in places like California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

Excessive heat warnings are currently in effect for cities like Las Vegas; Salt Lake City; Fresno, California; and Tucson, Arizona, where record stretches of dangerous temperatures are expected to continue for several days.

While heat alerts have been lifted in much of the Southeast, some remain in southeastern Texas and South Florida. It will still be hot elsewhere in the Southeast.

MORE: 'Strikingly warm' ocean heat wave off Florida coasts could decimate corals, other marine life, experts say

Record-setting temperatures plaguing the planet

The last 20 days on Earth have been the hottest 20 days on record, meteorology records show. The hottest day ever recorded in the northern hemisphere was measured on Saturday, when average temperatures reached 22.46 degrees Celsius -- or about 72.43 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record, 22.18 degrees Celsius -- about 71.92 degrees Fahrenheit -- was set in summer 2022.

Several places in the U.S. broke records on Saturday as well. Palm Springs, California, hit 115 degrees on Saturday, breaking its record for consecutive days of 115 degrees, now nine days in a row. Temperatures are expected to drop closer to 110 degrees by Monday and through the week.

Phoenix broke a daily record on Saturday with a high of 118 degrees, continuing its record stretch with 23 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees and six days in a row with temperatures at 115 degrees or higher. Sunday morning also continued the city's record stretch of 14 consecutive days of not dropping below 90 degrees.

When Las Vegas reached 115 degrees on Saturday, it broke a record set in 1937 at 114 degrees, extending its streak to nine days in a row at or above 110 degrees. The record for consecutive days above 110 degrees could be broken on Monday.

Tucson, Arizona, hit a daily record of 111 degrees on Saturday, shattering the record set in 2006 at 108 degrees. The city is now at eight days in a row at 110 degrees or above, tying with the record set in 2021. Tucson is also extending the record for the total number of non-consecutive days at 110 degrees or above, now at 14 days this year. The previous records were set in 1990 and 1994, at 10 days.

In El Paso, Texas, the record-smashing consecutive days of 100 degrees or higher is currently at 37 days, with no end in sight in the foreseeable future. The previous record was set in 1994, at 23 consecutive days.

On the East Coast, Miami has now had a heat index of 100 degrees or higher for a record 42 consecutive days, 10 days over the previous record of 32 set in 2020.

Alaska is also feeling the heat. The National Weather Service in Caribou is predicting the region's hottest month ever (of any month) for this July, with records going back to 1939.

MORE: Mix of extreme heat and wildfire smoke can be very dangerous, experts say

Where will the heat be this week

The heat dome currently stationed over the west will move eastward toward the middle of the country this week.

While temperatures in the Midwest were below average last week, with highs in the 60s and 70s, the region will experience a summer wake-up call in the coming days.

Temperatures are expected to skyrocket in the 90s and 100s in places like Fargo, North Dakota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri and Minneapolis this week. Some regions will experience heat indices of 105 degrees or more.

The heat will continue to blanket much of the U.S. through the end of July and into August, especially in the South.

MORE: European heat wave breaking records with little relief in sight

Parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast may be spared by the extreme heat, with average or even below average temperatures forecast there for the start of August.

ATTACHMENT FORTY SIX – From Fox 13 Salt Lake City

By: Spencer Burt Posted at 3:53 PM, Jul 22, 2023 and last updated 12:14 AM, Jul 23, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY — For the second time in under a week, Salt Lake City's daily temperature record has been broken.

The hottest July 22 on record was 104 degrees — a benchmark set just last year.

On Saturday, the National Weather Service announced around 2:30 p.m. that the SLC International Airport measuring station had tied the previous record. Then around 3:20 p.m., it reached 106. That's tied for the highest temperature so far this year.

The all-time record high for SLC is 107.

The NWS has also again issued heat warnings and advisories for several areas across the state of Utah.

They remind the public to stay hydrated, avoid physical over-exertion by taking breaks and seeking shade, and wear light/loose-fitting clothing. Experts also say it's helpful to limit caffeine and alcohol consumption.

Salt Lake County also offers dozens of "cool zones" that are free and open to the public. A map of them can be found HERE.

Unfortunately for nearly 1,400 SLC residents, they have been without power since around 6 p.m. and will likely not get it restored until Sunday.

Rocky Mountain Power reported that 1,467 customers were without power due to a substation failure. The company told FOX 13 News later Saturday night that these homes and businesses were being temporarily served by a mobile transformer, but after a bad testing, they determined that it will need to be replaced.

RMP tweeted that they expect to have power restored by around 6 a.m. Sunday morning.

A few hundred other outages occurred throughout Salt Lake, Utah and Tooele counties on Saturday.

ATTACHMENT FORTY SEVEN – From the Washington Post

THIS WEEK WILL BE THE SUMMER’S HOTTEST SO FAR OVER THE LOWER 48

By Wednesday and Thursday, all but the Pacific Northwest will see above-average temperatures

By Matthew Cappucci Updated July 24, 2023 at 11:52 a.m. EDT|Published July 24, 2023 at 11:19 a.m. EDT

After a month of bringing blistering heat to the Southwest, the southern Plains and the Gulf Coast, the relentless “heat dome” that has caused an outbreak of extreme temperatures is about to expand across even more of the country.

The heat over the coming week won’t be as intense as it was in the Southwest last week, but will cover a lot more territory. In other words, on balance, this will be the hottest week of the year so far for the Lower 48.

The heat is forecast to be most pervasive on Wednesday and Thursday, when more than 250 million people in the United States will experience heat indexes — a measure of how hot it feels, factoring in humidity — over 90 degrees. Temperatures are predicted to be above normal in all regions but the Pacific Northwest.

Highs will reach the triple digits from Phoenix to St. Louis and at least the mid-90s from New Orleans to New York.

It comes amid a July that’s likely to go down in the books as Earth’s hottest month in recorded history, and perhaps the warmest in the past 100,000 years. Heat records have been shattered worldwide, posing grave health concerns in regions where air conditioning is hard to come by or economically inaccessible.

Record heat to expand nationwide

In the coming days, the heat dome — or ridge of high pressure featuring hot, sinking air — will grow in size and widen. That will help establish records far and wide as the most intense heat pushes east.

On Monday, the core of the heat remains entrenched over the interior Western United States; records are possible from the Canadian border to Mexico. Kalispell, Mont., where records date to 1899, could hit 97 degrees, a record. Missoula and Helena should hit 101 and 100 degrees, respectively, tying or breaking records. Grand Junction, Colo., should be hot as well at 103 degrees, tying a record.

In the Texas Panhandle, highs on either side of 105 degrees should easily net a few records, while Phoenix will be near its July 24 record high of 116.

Denver, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City and Wichita are among other cities expected to see highs near the century mark.

Triple-digit heat could expand as far east as Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, while more records could fall from the Texas Panhandle westward. Billings, Mont., is forecast to tie a record at 97 degrees, but that pales in comparison with the readings in the Southwest. Phoenix and Tucson should both tie or break records at 117 and 110 degrees, respectively, while Roswell, N.M., could reach near 107 and also nab a record. Amarillo and Lubbock, Tex., should both hit 104, tying or breaking records. Highs will also flirt with records in South Florida.

Wednesday will see the heat ooze into the Upper Midwest. Highs from 95 to 100 degrees will span from New Orleans to northern Minnesota, including Little Rock, St. Louis and Des Moines. Factoring in humidity, many of these areas will feel at least five degrees hotter. Minneapolis could approach its July 26 record temperature of 100 degrees and will have a heat index near 105.

By Thursday, this heat will spread farther east. The 90s will surge through much of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, extending into Erie, Pa., a city expected to break a record at 91 degrees. Hagerstown, Md., and Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport should both hit 97 degrees, one degree short of records. To the west, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Kansas City and St. Louis could all hit 100.

On Friday, while the heat eases ever so slightly in the Southwest, it intensifies in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where highs should surge well into the 90s. Dulles Airport is forecast to hit 99, tying a record. It’s possible Washington could see its first triple-digit high since Aug. 15, 2016. Upper 90s are likely in New Jersey and around New York City, while mid-90s line the Connecticut River Valley from Hartford to Springfield, Mass.

A month to remember

As impressive as the magnitude of the heat is its longevity, particularly across the Desert Southwest. Phoenix marked 24 consecutive days at or above 110 degrees on Sunday, shattering the previous record of 18 days, which occurred in June 1974. Records in Phoenix date to 1895. The effects of human-caused climate change, along with the role of urbanization and land use changes, are helping temperatures to routinely reach extreme levels.

Phoenix has also had more than two weeks nonstop with overnight lows remaining above 90 degrees, which doubles the previous record streak of toasty nights. Factored together, the hot lows and the even more scorching highs will probably make July 2023 in Phoenix the first time that any American city has achieved an average monthly temperature over 100 degrees. So far, the average temperature has been 102.7 degrees, the month coming in 7.1 degrees above normal.

On Sunday, Las Vegas hit at least 110 degrees for a record-tying 10th straight day. Salt Lake City has twice in the last week matched its highest average temperature (taking into account daytime highs and nighttime lows) on record.

It’s not just Phoenix, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City that can’t shake the heat. In El Paso, the past 38 days have all surpassed 100 degrees. And in Miami, while the actual air temperatures may not have set records each day, the heat indexes largely have. Miami has seen a record 43 days in a row with a heat index over 100 degrees, 26 of which have been daily heat index records.

The unforgiving heat is closely linked to extremely hot water temperatures off the southwest Florida coast. That’s contributing to exceptional humidity in the air. Sea-surface temperatures in the 90s have been reported between the Florida Keys and the southern tip of the Everglades, which has also resulted in coral reef bleaching.

Sunday also tied the hottest average temperature in Miami’s history, with a daytime high of 98 and a morning low of 82. Only one other day — July 24, 1983 — had the same.

Looking ahead

The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center's outlook for Friday through Aug. 2. (Pivotal Weather)

In the extended range, there is no end in sight to the exceptional heat dominating North America. Most heat domes break down after a week or two, but not this one — it looks to remain large and in charge into August.

The Climate Prediction Center continues to portray a likelihood of hot weather predominating over the United States well into next week. An exception may be the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Northeast, where near or slightly below-average temperatures are possible.

Jason Samenow contributed to this report.

ATTACHMENT FORTY EIGHT – From ABC

SEVERE HEAT FORECAST: WHERE SCORCHING TEMPERATURES WILL PERSIST OVER THE NEXT WEEK

Dangerous heat will continue to plague a large portion of the U.S.

More than 40 million Americans under heat alerts

By Julia Jacobo and Kenton Gewecke July 23, 2023, 11:57 AM

4:01

An unrelenting heat dome continues to hover over the western United States this weekend, prompting heat alerts for tens of millions of residents.

Heat advisories and warnings were issued for 40 million Americans across 10 states on Sunday, with the highest temperatures concentrated in places like California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

Excessive heat warnings are currently in effect for cities like Las Vegas; Salt Lake City; Fresno, California; and Tucson, Arizona, where record stretches of dangerous temperatures are expected to continue for several days.

While heat alerts have been lifted in much of the Southeast, some remain in southeastern Texas and South Florida. It will still be hot elsewhere in the Southeast.

MORE: 'Strikingly warm' ocean heat wave off Florida coasts could decimate corals, other marine life, experts say

Record-setting temperatures plaguing the planet

The last 20 days on Earth have been the hottest 20 days on record, meteorology records show. The hottest day ever recorded in the northern hemisphere was measured on Saturday, when average temperatures reached 22.46 degrees Celsius -- or about 72.43 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record, 22.18 degrees Celsius -- about 71.92 degrees Fahrenheit -- was set in summer 2022.

Several places in the U.S. broke records on Saturday as well. Palm Springs, California, hit 115 degrees on Saturday, breaking its record for consecutive days of 115 degrees, now nine days in a row. Temperatures are expected to drop closer to 110 degrees by Monday and through the week.

Phoenix broke a daily record on Saturday with a high of 118 degrees, continuing its record stretch with 23 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees and six days in a row with temperatures at 115 degrees or higher. Sunday morning also continued the city's record stretch of 14 consecutive days of not dropping below 90 degrees.

When Las Vegas reached 115 degrees on Saturday, it broke a record set in 1937 at 114 degrees, extending its streak to nine days in a row at or above 110 degrees. The record for consecutive days above 110 degrees could be broken on Monday.

Tucson, Arizona, hit a daily record of 111 degrees on Saturday, shattering the record set in 2006 at 108 degrees. The city is now at eight days in a row at 110 degrees or above, tying with the record set in 2021. Tucson is also extending the record for the total number of non-consecutive days at 110 degrees or above, now at 14 days this year. The previous records were set in 1990 and 1994, at 10 days.

In El Paso, Texas, the record-smashing consecutive days of 100 degrees or higher is currently at 37 days, with no end in sight in the foreseeable future. The previous record was set in 1994, at 23 consecutive days.

On the East Coast, Miami has now had a heat index of 100 degrees or higher for a record 42 consecutive days, 10 days over the previous record of 32 set in 2020.

Alaska is also feeling the heat. The National Weather Service in Caribou is predicting the region's hottest month ever (of any month) for this July, with records going back to 1939.

MORE: Mix of extreme heat and wildfire smoke can be very dangerous, experts say

Where will the heat be this week

The heat dome currently stationed over the west will move eastward toward the middle of the country this week.

While temperatures in the Midwest were below average last week, with highs in the 60s and 70s, the region will experience a summer wake-up call in the coming days.

Temperatures are expected to skyrocket in the 90s and 100s in places like Fargo, North Dakota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri and Minneapolis this week. Some regions will experience heat indices of 105 degrees or more.

The heat will continue to blanket much of the U.S. through the end of July and into August, especially in the South.

MORE: European heat wave breaking records with little relief in sight

Parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast may be spared by the extreme heat, with average or even below average temperatures forecast there for the start of August.

ATTACHMENT FORTY NINE – From the Portland (Maine) Press Herald

AMERICANS ARE MOVING TOWARD CLIMATE DANGER IN SEARCH OF CHEAPER HOMES

Migration to places at high risk from heat, floods and fires rose over the past two years, a new analysis by Redfin finds.

BY LESLIE KAUFMAN BLOOMBERG Posted 11:39 AM Updated at 11:40 AM

A midsummer quiz: Let’s say you read about an area experiencing blistering heat for weeks on end. Heat so hot that in the day, you can’t go outside, and at nighttime it’s still above 90F. Would you cross that off your list of locations for your dream home?

Now suppose a neighborhood experiences regular heavy flooding and was recently decimated in places by a hurricane. Do you want to move there, or perhaps look for somewhere on higher, drier ground?

Many Americans are actually choosing to move to Zip codes with a high risk of experiencing wildfire, heat, drought and flood, according to a new study on domestic migration by Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm, made available exclusively to Bloomberg Green.

In fact, the nation’s most flood-prone counties experienced a net influx of about 400,000 people in 2021 and 2022. That represents a 103% increase from the two-year period before that. The U.S. counties with the highest risk of wildfire saw 446,000 more people move in than out over the last two years (a 51% increase from 2019 and 2020). And the counties with the highest heat risk registered a net influx of 629,000, a 17% uptick.

Take Lee County, Fla., which includes Fort Myers and Cape Coral and was slammed by Hurricane Ian last September. In the past two years, it’s seen a net inflow of 60,000 people, an increase of about 65% from the prior two years.

The real estate brokerage site relied on First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that communicates information about climate risk, to flag the Zip codes at the most risk of flooding, wildfire, heat and drought, and analyzed recent census data to find population migration patterns.

It’s not that people don’t care about climate dangers, says Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. It’s that concerns about affordability are primary and dominate everything else. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, the combination of remote work, low mortgage rates and high home prices in a number of major metropolitan areas prompted many Americans to relocate to the Sun Belt.

“People are seeking out places with warm weather and low taxes,” Fairweather said in an interview. “Those near-term concerns tend to trump any of these climate risks.”

A previous Redfin analysis found that buyers will consider climate risk when home shopping if it’s easily available, but “that is on the margins, after they’ve already decided on a city or a neighborhood,” said Fairweather.

Popular destinations such as Florida, Arizona, Utah and California’s Inland Empire can have cheaper land costs for builders and, in some cases, more forgiving building codes, translating to lower new-home prices, but often the climate risks are higher than for older homes. Redfin found in a separate analysis that 55% of homes built so far this decade face wildfire risk and 45% face drought risk. By comparison, just 14% of homes built from 1900 to 1959 are at risk for fire and 37% for drought.

While the macro trend is migration to risky areas, there are two noteworthy exceptions. Hurricane-prone Louisiana and Paradise, Calif., the scene of the devastating Camp Fire in 2018, both saw a net outflow of residents, proving that perhaps there is a line where enough is enough.

Whether or not home buyers are considering the long term, the long term is coming for them and their property values. As the report notes, “Homeowners in disaster-prone areas may see their property values start to grow at a slower-than-expected pace as natural disasters intensify and insurance becomes costlier and harder to come by.” Rates of appreciation will be an estimated 5.4% slower than average by 2040 in counties with high flood risk, 4.8% slower in high-heat-risk counties and 3.6% slower in fire-vulnerable counties, according to forecasts by analytics firm Climate Alpha.

ATTACHMENT FIFTY – From the BBC

A NASA OFFICIAL PREDICTED JULY MAY BE THE EARTH'S HOTTEST MONTH ON RECORD IN CENTURIES

By Sam Cabral

A heatwave baking the US Southwest for weeks is set to expand into central and eastern regions.

Beginning in the Midwest, the hot weather will extend east as far as the southern tip of Florida by Wednesday, say meteorologists.

Temperature records were surpassed in several major cities over the weekend, and some 59 million Americans began Monday under extreme heat advisories.

July is now expected to be the Earth's hottest month since records began.

On Sunday, the city of Phoenix, Arizona, extended its streak of temperatures above 43C (110F) into a 24th day, well past the previous record of 18 days set in 1974.

It is on course to be the first major US city to average over 100F (38C) for an entire month, according to NOAA statistics and a Washington Post analysis.

At least 18 heat-related deaths have occurred in surrounding Maricopa County since April, with 69 more deaths under investigation.

· Is climate change causing heatwaves and wildfires?

· Millions under smoke advisory due to Canada fires

Meanwhile, in the border town of El Paso, Texas, residents experienced a 38th consecutive day at temperatures above 38C (100F).

The National Park Service has also reported at least four deaths among visitors to its parks in the southwest region.

Two female hikers were found dead in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada on Sunday, amid temperatures as high as 45C (114F). Police have not yet released their identities or a possible cause of death.

Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the US.

Ocean temperatures in South Florida and the Keys could reach unprecedented highs as the heatwave extends east in the coming days.

According to BBC Weather, the heatwave has been caused by a "heat dome", a large area of high pressure.

Within this dome, air is heated from the surface and trapped in place by sinking hot air from above.

"Through this week, the heat dome will expand, bringing hotter weather and above average temperatures to pretty much the whole of continental US," said meteorologist Simon King of BBC Weather.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center says this latest heatwave will last another two weeks.

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the US has this year set or tied more than 13,000 high temperature records, as well as 16,000 low temperature records.

Experts say heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change.

Washington state's Democratic governor Jay Inslee told ABC News Sunday the heatwaves reported around the world are evidence that "the Earth is screaming at us".

"The fuse has been burning for decades, and now the climate change bomb has gone off," he said.

"The scientists are telling us that this is the new age. This is the age of consequences."

Statistical Attachments

ATTACHMENT “A” – From Trading Economics

AVERAGE TEMPERATURES by COUNTRY (Hottest to Coldest)

Country	Last	Previous	Reference	Unit
Burkina Faso	30.01	29.63	Dec/21	celsius
Mali	29.78	29.4	Dec/21	celsius
Senegal	29.63	29.56	Dec/21	celsius
Qatar	29.42	28.45	Dec/21	celsius
Mauritania	29.3	29.1	Dec/21	celsius
Bahrain	29.15	28.15	Dec/21	celsius
United Arab Emirates	29.08	28.38	Dec/21	celsius
Aruba	29.03	29.37	Dec/21	celsius
Gambia	29	29.03	Dec/21	celsius
Guinea Bissau	28.76	28.71	Dec/21	celsius
Benin	28.7	28.43	Dec/21	celsius
Djibouti	28.46	28.43	Dec/21	celsius
Ghana	28.3	28.1	Dec/21	celsius
Sudan	28.17	27.42	Dec/21	celsius
Oman	28.1	27.82	Dec/21	celsius
Niger	28.09	27.85	Dec/21	celsius
Marshall Islands	28.07	28.43	Dec/21	celsius
Togo	28.05	27.82	Dec/21	celsius
Cayman Islands	27.99	28.3	Dec/21	celsius
Kuwait	27.89	26.89	Dec/21	celsius
Guam	27.88	28.02	Dec/21	celsius
Maldives	27.74	27.78	Dec/21	celsius
Singapore	27.74	28.02	Dec/21	celsius
Chad	27.72	27.37	Dec/21	celsius
Nigeria	27.67	27.43	Dec/21	celsius
Northern Mariana Islands	27.65	27.84	Dec/21	celsius
St Kitts and Nevis	27.61	27.73	Dec/21	celsius
Palau	27.56	27.72	Dec/21	celsius
Samoa	27.56	27.75	Dec/21	celsius
Kiribati	27.49	27.49	Dec/21	celsius
Cambodia	27.44	27.9	Dec/21	celsius
Sri Lanka	27.41	27.66	Dec/21	celsius
Ivory Coast	27.37	27.19	Dec/21	celsius
American Samoa	27.34	27.52	Dec/21	celsius
Antigua and Barbuda	27.33	27.44	Dec/21	celsius
Sierra Leone	27.19	27.01	Dec/21	celsius
Seychelles	27.07	27.26	Dec/21	celsius
St Lucia	27.04	27.18	Dec/21	celsius
Micronesia	27.01	27.34	Dec/21	celsius
Dominica	26.91	27.03	Dec/21	celsius
Thailand	26.91	27.43	Dec/21	celsius
Somalia	26.88	27.08	Dec/21	celsius
Eritrea	26.87	26.38	Dec/21	celsius
Virgin Islands	26.83	26.97	Dec/21	celsius
Saudi Arabia	26.8	26.18	Dec/21	celsius
Barbados	26.64	26.8	Dec/21	celsius
Philippines	26.6	26.64	Dec/21	celsius
Guinea	26.59	26.33	Dec/21	celsius
Suriname	26.56	26.9	Dec/21	celsius
Trinidad and Tobago	26.54	26.78	Dec/21	celsius
Grenada	26.49	26.67	Dec/21	celsius
Malaysia	26.46	26.67	Dec/21	celsius
Nicaragua	26.19	26.33	Dec/21	celsius
St Vincent and the Grenadines	26.17	26.33	Dec/21	celsius
Belize	26.15	26.38	Dec/21	celsius
Guyana	26.15	26.52	Dec/21	celsius
Cuba	26.05	26.43	Dec/21	celsius
Indonesia	25.99	26.18	Dec/21	celsius
Liberia	25.87	25.73	Dec/21	celsius
Jamaica	25.8	26.05	Dec/21	celsius
Central African Republic	25.78	25.67	Dec/21	celsius
Bangladesh	25.68	25.38	Dec/21	celsius
Gabon	25.65	25.73	Dec/21	celsius
Panama	25.62	25.9	Dec/21	celsius
Yemen	25.62	25.62	Dec/21	celsius
Venezuela	25.61	25.93	Dec/21	celsius
Solomon Islands	25.6	25.6	Dec/21	celsius
Brazil	25.58	25.93	Dec/21	celsius
El Salvador	25.56	25.79	Dec/21	celsius
Bahamas	25.5	25.99	Dec/21	celsius
Congo	25.23	25.37	Dec/21	celsius
Kenya	25.23	25.43	Dec/21	celsius
Republic of the Congo	25.23	25.37	Dec/21	celsius
Cameroon	25.21	25.22	Dec/21	celsius
Puerto Rico	25.11	25.23	Dec/21	celsius
Equatorial Guinea	25.08	25.08	Dec/21	celsius
Mayotte	25.08	25.3	Dec/21	celsius
Haiti	25.06	25.26	Dec/21	celsius
Honduras	25.05	25.21	Dec/21	celsius
Vietnam	25.03	25.22	Dec/21	celsius
Fiji	25.01	25.29	Dec/21	celsius
India	24.99	24.8	Dec/21	celsius
Colombia	24.97	25.36	Dec/21	celsius
Costa Rica	24.94	25.08	Dec/21	celsius
Tonga	24.74	25.02	Dec/21	celsius
Papua New Guinea	24.73	24.75	Dec/21	celsius
Vanuatu	24.72	24.76	Dec/21	celsius
Dominican Republic	24.7	24.86	Dec/21	celsius
Sao Tome and Principe	24.7	24.49	Dec/21	celsius
Mozambique	24.53	24.61	Dec/21	celsius
Laos	24.32	24.71	Dec/21	celsius
Hong Kong	24.24	24.09	Dec/21	celsius
Iraq	24.22	23.45	Dec/21	celsius
Guatemala	24.09	24.35	Dec/21	celsius
Myanmar	24.08	24.05	Dec/21	celsius
Paraguay	24.01	24.62	Dec/21	celsius
Macau	23.96	23.77	Dec/21	celsius
Algeria	23.93	23.79	Dec/21	celsius
Egypt	23.88	23.18	Dec/21	celsius
Mauritius	23.67	23.53	Dec/21	celsius
Comoros	23.51	23.76	Dec/21	celsius
Cape Verde	23.45	23.65	Dec/21	celsius
Ethiopia	23.35	23.38	Dec/21	celsius
Uganda	23.22	23.37	Dec/21	celsius
Libya	23.05	22.63	Dec/21	celsius
New Caledonia	23.04	23.12	Dec/21	celsius
Tanzania	23	23.09	Dec/21	celsius
Madagascar	22.87	22.89	Dec/21	celsius
Malawi	22.79	22.8	Dec/21	celsius
French Polynesia	22.19	22.21	Dec/21	celsius
Zambia	22.12	22.03	Dec/21	celsius
Australia	22.06	22.57	Dec/21	celsius
Zimbabwe	21.87	21.92	Dec/21	celsius
Mexico	21.86	22.08	Dec/21	celsius
Angola	21.74	21.73	Dec/21	celsius
Botswana	21.74	22.06	Dec/21	celsius
Pakistan	21.68	20.81	Dec/21	celsius
Ecuador	21.38	21.78	Dec/21	celsius
Tunisia	21.33	20.87	Dec/21	celsius
Taiwan	21.03	20.92	Dec/21	celsius
Israel	20.87	20.41	Dec/21	celsius
Bolivia	20.82	21.35	Dec/21	celsius
Swaziland	20.55	20.87	Dec/21	celsius
Burundi	20.53	20.44	Dec/21	celsius
Jordan	20.36	19.92	Dec/21	celsius
Palestine	20.36	19.92	Dec/21	celsius
Malta	20.28	20.04	Dec/21	celsius
Namibia	20.12	20.31	Dec/21	celsius
Cyprus	19.84	19.73	Dec/21	celsius
Peru	19.79	19.95	Dec/21	celsius
Syria	19.72	19.38	Dec/21	celsius
Iran	19.54	18.35	Dec/21	celsius
Rwanda	19.21	19.13	Dec/21	celsius
Morocco	18.48	18.57	Dec/21	celsius
South Africa	18.06	18.47	Dec/21	celsius
Uruguay	18.06	18.12	Dec/21	celsius
Turkmenistan	17.65	16.44	Dec/21	celsius
Lebanon	16.23	15.97	Dec/21	celsius
Portugal	16.09	16.42	Dec/21	celsius
Argentina	15.4	15.52	Dec/21	celsius
Greece	14.89	14.8	Dec/21	celsius
Uzbekistan	14.78	13.9	Dec/21	celsius
Nepal	14.32	13.97	Dec/21	celsius
Afghanistan	14.3	12.88	Dec/21	celsius
Azerbaijan	14.29	13.76	Dec/21	celsius
Spain	14.25	14.65	Dec/21	celsius
Monaco	13.62	14.21	Dec/21	celsius
Italy	13.5	13.85	Dec/21	celsius
South Korea	13.04	12.54	Dec/21	celsius
San Marino	12.95	13.33	Dec/21	celsius
Albania	12.92	13.1	Dec/21	celsius
Turkey	12.63	12.66	Dec/21	celsius
Japan	12.36	12.32	Dec/21	celsius
Lesotho	12.26	12.63	Dec/21	celsius
Bulgaria	11.98	12.5	Dec/21	celsius
Croatia	11.95	12.46	Dec/21	celsius
Serbia	11.67	12.21	Dec/21	celsius
France	11.57	12.71	Dec/21	celsius
Hungary	11.57	12.25	Dec/21	celsius
Macedonia	11.42	11.63	Dec/21	celsius
New Zealand	11.23	10.91	Dec/21	celsius
Moldova	10.94	12.41	Dec/21	celsius
Bhutan	10.8	10.4	Dec/21	celsius
Bosnia and Herzegovina	10.66	11.07	Dec/21	celsius
Belgium	10.47	11.88	Dec/21	celsius
Netherlands	10.39	11.66	Dec/21	celsius
Romania	10.35	11.3	Dec/21	celsius
Montenegro	10.2	10.61	Dec/21	celsius
Georgia	10.06	9.92	Dec/21	celsius
United States	10	10	Dec/21	celsius
Ireland	9.95	9.79	Dec/21	celsius
Slovenia	9.9	10.55	Dec/21	celsius
Isle of Man	9.89	9.92	Dec/21	celsius
Chile	9.88	9.97	Dec/21	celsius
Luxembourg	9.81	11.33	Dec/21	celsius
Germany	9.49	10.79	Dec/21	celsius
Ukraine	9.38	10.86	Dec/21	celsius
United Kingdom	9.38	9.68	Dec/21	celsius
Denmark	8.92	10.04	Dec/21	celsius
Armenia	8.84	8.43	Dec/21	celsius
Slovakia	8.78	9.63	Dec/21	celsius
Poland	8.75	10.03	Dec/21	celsius
Czech Republic	8.5	9.61	Dec/21	celsius
Andorra	8.43	9.09	Dec/21	celsius
China	8.19	7.89	Dec/21	celsius
Kazakhstan	7.88	8.35	Dec/21	celsius
North Korea	7.79	7.51	Dec/21	celsius
Liechtenstein	7.42	8.63	Dec/21	celsius
Austria	7.35	8.24	Dec/21	celsius
Belarus	7.33	9.09	Dec/21	celsius
Lithuania	7.28	8.96	Dec/21	celsius
Latvia	6.81	8.56	Dec/21	celsius
Faroe Islands	6.5	6.66	Dec/21	celsius
Switzerland	6.42	7.67	Dec/21	celsius
Estonia	6.28	8.12	Dec/21	celsius
Tajikistan	4.52	3.59	Dec/21	celsius
Kyrgyzstan	3.35	2.74	Dec/21	celsius
Sweden	3.02	4.47	Dec/21	celsius
Iceland	2.4	2	Dec/21	celsius
Finland	2.3	4.11	Dec/21	celsius
Mongolia	2.07	1.53	Dec/21	celsius
Norway	2.06	3.34	Dec/21	celsius
Russia	-3.64	-1.72	Dec/21	celsius
Canada	-3.71	-4.27	Dec/21	celsius
Greenland	-17.56	-18.46	Dec/21	celsius

ATTACHMENT “B” – From World Population Review

The same... but older (30 year average, 1961 – 1990)

The first step in determining the hottest country in the world is to decide what qualifies a country as the hottest. For example, is it the country that recorded the single hottest temperature in the world in a given year? If so, that's Kuwait, whose city of Nuwaiseeb reached 53.2C (127.7F) on June 22, 2021. Is it the country that recorded the hottest temperature in modern history? That would be the United States, which hit 56.7C (134F) in Death Valley, California in 1913. Is it the country that has the hottest average summer temperature, never mind the winter temperatures? Is it the country with the hottest average year-round temperature over the past 30 years? While all of these metrics have merit, this article will be using the last one mentioned.

Mali is the hottest country in the world, with an average yearly temperature of 83.89°F (28.83°C). Located in West Africa, Mali actually shares borders with both Burkina Faso and Senegal, which follow it on the list. A large part of Mali is covered by the Sahara Desert, and most of the country receives minimal rain, making drought a frequent concern.

How hot is the hottest country on Earth?

At first glance, 28.83°C / 83.89°F seems surprisingly cool. But keep in mind these are not average summertime highs, but average overall temperatures. That means this number includes not just the summer highs, but both day and night temperatures not only in summer, but also in the spring, fall, and winter months. For example, daytime highs in Timbuktu, Mali average between 97°F and 108°F from March through mid-October—in fact, the average daily high in January, the coolest month of the year, is still 83°F. But cooler winter nights in the 58-65°F range lower the yearly average temperature down to a seemingly innocuous, but actually brutal mid-80s (°F) average.

Where are the Earth's hottest countries?

As a rule, countries closer to the Earth's equator (zero degrees latitude) experience warmer temperatures year-round than countries farther north or south of the equator. As one moves closer to the poles (further north in the Northern Hemisphere or south in the Southern Hemisphere), the seasonal weather variation and range of temperatures experienced over the course of a year increases, including significantly colder temperatures in the winter.

Why are temperate countries cooler?

The main reason countries near the equator experience hotter temperatures is the shape of the Earth. Because the Earth is roughly spherical, sunlight strikes the equator at a nearly perpendicular angle, which concentrates it in a smaller area and makes it more likely to be absorbed. However, the sunlight that strikes the poles does so at an increased angle, which spreads the sunlight over a greater area and makes it more likely to ricochet off (especially in areas already covered in snow). In addition, approaching at an increased angle means the sunlight must penetrate a thicker layer of atmosphere, increasing the odds of the sunlight getting reflected, deflected or absorbed by atmospheric particles before it reaches the surface. As a result, the closer a country is to the poles, the less solar energy it absorbs and the cooler it is overall.

A second, closely related cause of temperature variation is the tilt of the Earth's axis. In fact, the Earth's tilt—not slight variations in its distance from the sun—is the reason Earth has seasons. From roughly May-September each year, the Earth's tilted axis points the North Pole toward the sun, enabling sunlight to strike the Northern Hemisphere at a more direct angle. More sunlight is absorbed, and the Northern Hemisphere experiences summer. Six months later, the Earth will have completed half its orbit and its North Pole will now point away from the sun. When this happens, the Northern Hemisphere absorbs less sun and moves into fall and winter. However, because the South Pole now points toward the sun, the Southern Hemisphere gets more direct sunlight and enjoys its own spring and summer.

Do changes in climate correspond to national borders?

While geographical features such as lakes and mountain ranges can definitely impact weather and climate, national borders are typically determined by politics rather than geography. Therefore, national borders tend to have no effect upon climate, weather, and temperatures. Climates and temperatures vary greatly between countries and even within countries. This is especially true in large countries, such as the United States or Russia. The U.S. states have a huge variety of climates depending on their latitude and proximity to oceans, mountains, or the Great Lakes.

Are the world's hottest countries getting hotter?

Scientific evidence indicates that the entire planet is getting hotter. As such, every country in the world, from hottest to coolest, will likely experience a rise in average annual temperatures. According to the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. Moreover, multiple studies from sources including NASA and the NOAA indicate that the period from 2014-2020 was the warmest six-year stretch in at least the past 171 years. Studies such as these offer overwhelming evidence that human-influenced global warming and climate change is both real and happening. However, significant questions remain regarding exactly how much temperatures will ultimately rise and what humans can and will do to prevent, counteract, or adapt to it.

* yearly temperature is calculated by averaging the minimum and maximum daily temperatures in the country, averaged for the years 1961–1990.

Country	Average Yearly Temperature (°C)	Average Yearly Temperature (°F)
Mali	28.25	82.85
Burkina Faso	28.25	82.85
Kiribati	28.2	82.76
Djibouti	28	82.4
Tuvalu	28	82.4
Senegal	27.85	82.13
Mauritania	27.65	81.77
Maldives	27.65	81.77
Palau	27.6	81.68
Benin	27.55	81.59
Gambia	27.5	81.5
Marshall Islands	27.4	81.32
Ghana	27.2	80.96
Niger	27.15	80.87
Togo	27.15	80.87
Qatar	27.15	80.87
Bahrain	27.15	80.87
Seychelles	27.15	80.87
Somalia	27.05	80.69
United Arab Emirates	27	80.6
Sri Lanka	26.95	80.51
Sudan	26.9	80.42
Brunei	26.85	80.33
Nigeria	26.8	80.24
Cambodia	26.8	80.24
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines	26.8	80.24
Guinea Bissau	26.75	80.15
Samoa	26.7	80.06
Grenada	26.65	79.97
Chad	26.55	79.79
Singapore	26.45	79.61
Ivory Coast	26.35	79.43
Thailand	26.3	79.34
Sierra Leone	26.05	78.89
Guyana	26	78.8
Barbados	26	78.8
Antigua And Barbuda	26	78.8
Indonesia	25.85	78.53
Philippines	25.85	78.53
Micronesia	25.85	78.53
Trinidad And Tobago	25.75	78.35
Guinea	25.7	78.26
Suriname	25.7	78.26
Solomon Islands	25.65	78.17
Oman	25.6	78.08
Comoros	25.55	77.99
Eritrea	25.5	77.9
Saint Lucia	25.5	77.9
Malaysia	25.4	77.72
Panama	25.4	77.72
Venezuela	25.35	77.63
Kuwait	25.35	77.63
Liberia	25.3	77.54
Belize	25.3	77.54
Papua New Guinea	25.25	77.45
Timor Leste	25.25	77.45
Tonga	25.25	77.45
Cuba	25.2	77.36
Gabon	25.05	77.09
Bangladesh	25	77
Brazil	24.95	76.91
Jamaica	24.95	76.91
Haiti	24.9	76.82
Nicaragua	24.9	76.82
Central African Republic	24.9	76.82
Bahamas	24.85	76.73
Costa Rica	24.8	76.64
Kenya	24.75	76.55
Saudi Arabia	24.65	76.37
Cameroon	24.6	76.28
Dominican Republic	24.55	76.19
Republic Of The Congo	24.55	76.19
Equatorial Guinea	24.55	76.19
Colombia	24.5	76.1
Saint Kitts And Nevis	24.5	76.1
Vietnam	24.45	76.01
El Salvador	24.45	76.01
Fiji	24.4	75.92
Dr Congo	24	75.2
Vanuatu	23.95	75.11
Yemen	23.85	74.93
Mozambique	23.8	74.84
Sao Tome And Principe	23.75	74.75
India	23.65	74.57
Paraguay	23.55	74.39
Honduras	23.5	74.3
Guatemala	23.45	74.21
Cape Verde	23.3	73.94
Uganda	22.8	73.04
Laos	22.8	73.04
Madagascar	22.65	72.77
Algeria	22.5	72.5
Mauritius	22.4	72.32
Tanzania	22.35	72.23
Dominica	22.35	72.23
Ethiopia	22.2	71.96
Egypt	22.1	71.78
Malawi	21.9	71.42
Ecuador	21.85	71.33
Libya	21.8	71.24
Australia	21.65	70.97
Angola	21.55	70.79
Bolivia	21.55	70.79
Botswana	21.5	70.7
Iraq	21.4	70.52
Zambia	21.4	70.52
Eswatini	21.4	70.52
Mexico	21	69.8
Zimbabwe	21	69.8
Pakistan	20.2	68.36
Namibia	19.95	67.91
Burundi	19.8	67.64
Peru	19.6	67.28
Tunisia	19.2	66.56
Israel	19.2	66.56
Malta	19.2	66.56
Cyprus	18.45	65.21
Jordan	18.3	64.94
Rwanda	17.85	64.13
South Africa	17.75	63.95
Syria	17.75	63.95
Uruguay	17.55	63.59
Iran	17.25	63.05
Morocco	17.1	62.78
Lebanon	16.4	61.52
Greece	15.4	59.72
Portugal	15.15	59.27
Turkmenistan	15.1	59.18
Argentina	14.8	58.64
Monaco	13.55	56.39
Italy	13.45	56.21
Spain	13.3	55.94
Myanmar	13.05	55.49
Afghanistan	12.6	54.68
Uzbekistan	12.05	53.69
Azerbaijan	11.95	53.51
Lesotho	11.85	53.33
San Marino	11.85	53.33
South Korea	11.5	52.7
Albania	11.4	52.52
Japan	11.15	52.07
Turkey	11.1	51.98
Croatia	10.9	51.62
France	10.7	51.26
Serbia	10.55	50.99
Bulgaria	10.55	50.99
New Zealand	10.55	50.99
Montenegro	10.55	50.99
Bosnia And Herzegovina	9.85	49.73
Hungary	9.75	49.55
Belgium	9.55	49.19
Moldova	9.45	49.01
Ireland	9.3	48.74
Netherlands	9.25	48.65
Slovenia	8.9	48.02
Romania	8.8	47.84
Luxembourg	8.65	47.57
United States	8.55	47.39
Germany	8.5	47.3
United Kingdom	8.45	47.21
Chile	8.45	47.21
Ukraine	8.3	46.94
Nepal	8.1	46.58
Poland	7.85	46.13
Andorra	7.6	45.68
Czech Republic	7.55	45.59
Denmark	7.5	45.5
Bhutan	7.4	45.32
Armenia	7.15	44.87
China	6.95	44.51
Slovakia	6.8	44.24
Kazakhstan	6.4	43.52
Austria	6.35	43.43
Lithuania	6.2	43.16
Belarus	6.15	43.07
Georgia	5.8	42.44
North Korea	5.7	42.26
Liechtenstein	5.65	42.17
Latvia	5.6	42.08
Switzerland	5.5	41.9
Estonia	5.1	41.18
Sweden	2.1	35.78
Tajikistan	2	35.6
Iceland	1.75	35.15
Finland	1.7	35.06
Kyrgyzstan	1.55	34.79
Norway	1.5	34.7
Mongolia	-0.7	30.74
Russia	-5.1	22.82
Canada	-5.35	22.37

ATTACHMENT “C” – From the National Weather Service

Average Annual Temperature by Year for the past 147 years

Year Annual Average Temperature (F)

1875 52.5

1876 51.5

1877 52.0

1878 52.5

1879 52.7

1880 48.6

1881 52.3

1882 49.6

1883 50.8

1884 51.0

1885 52.8

1886 52.0

1887 52.6

1888 53.0

1889 52.9

1890 51.4

1891 50.8

1892 51.2

1893 50.3

1894 51.0

1895 50.4

1896 51.6

1897 50.6

1898 49.7

1899 51.0

1900 53.9

1901 53.5

1902 52.1

1903 50.6

1904 51.8

1905 51.7

1906 51.2

1907 52.4

1908 50.1

1909 51.8

1910 54.5

1911 51.2

1912 50.9

1913 51.3

1914 53.2

1915 53.2

1916 51.1

1917 50.7

1918 52.3

1919 52.5

1920 51.3

1921 54.4

1922 51.2

1923 50.8

1924 51.5

1925 53.1

1926 53.9

1927 52.5

1928 50.7

1929 49.3

1930 49.4

1931 49.9

1932 48.2

1933 50.5

1934 55.3

1935 51.9

1936 52.2

1937 51.4

1938 52.0

1939 51.7

1940 53.8

1941 51.5

1942 49.7

1943 52.2

1944 49.4

1945 50.5

1946 52.0

1947 51.6

1948 50.6

1949 50.1

1950 51.6

1951 50.4

1952 51.1

1953 53.2

1954 52.8

1955 49.6

1956 51.5

1957 51.7

1958 53.6

1959 51.7

1960 51.9

1961 52.3

1962 50.6

1963 50.9

1964 48.3

1965 50.5

1966 52.4

1967 51.9

1968 50.3

1969 52.0

1970 51.6

1971 50.5

1972 52.3

1973 51.4

1974 52.9

1975 50.8

1976 51.6

1977 53.2

1978 53.3

1979 52.7

1980 52.8

1981 54.3

1982 51.0

1983 53.5

1984 51.0

1985 51.9

1986 52.7

1987 53.4

1988 53.3

1989 52.2

1990 53.4

1991 51.8

1992 53.6

1993 50.3

1994 54.7

1995 53.9

1996 54.3

1997 53.4

1998 52.9

1999 53.3

2000 53.7

2001 53.8

2002 52.0

2003 55.0

2004 52.1

2005 53.4

2006 53.8

2007 53.8

2008 51.9

2009 52.1

2010 52.7

2011 51.8

2012 56.6

2013 53.3

2014 55.6

2015 56.3

2016 56.2

2017 56.1

2018 56.2

2019 53.6

2020 55.7

2021 56.3

2022 55.9

Average Annual Temperature 52.2

Normal Average Annual Temperature (1991-2020): 54.7F

Old Attachments from last week’s Lesson:

Q31 From Time

Human Adaptation to Heat Can’t Keep Up With Human-Caused Climate Change

BY JEFF GOODELL JULY 6, 2023 3:48 PM EDT

Goodell, a contributor to Rolling Stone and a NYT bestselling nonfiction writer, is the author of the new book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet

The last time the Earth was hotter than it is today was at least 125,000 years ago, long before anything that resembled human civilization appeared. Since 1970, the Earth’s temperature has spiked faster than in any comparable forty-year period in recorded history. The eight years between 2015 and 2022 were the hottest on record. In 2022, 850 million people lived in regions that experienced all-time high temperatures. Globally, killer heat waves are becoming longer, hotter, and more frequent. One study found that a heat wave like the one that cooked the Pacific Northwest in 2021 is 150 times more likely today than it was before we began the atmosphere with CO2 at the beginning of the industrial age.

Just look at the events of this year: wildfire smoke from Canada turned the skies on the east coast an apocalyptic orange; sea ice in Antarctica hit a record low; all-time temperature records were shattered in Puerto Rico, Siberia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Texas (I live in Austin, where, as I write this in late June, it’s 106 degrees F). In the North Atlantic ocean, sea surface temperatures in late June are the highest ever recorded.

The truth is, extreme heat is remaking our planet into one in which large swaths may become inhospitable to human life. One recent study projected that over the next fifty years, one to three billion people will be left outside the climate conditions that gave rise to civilization over the last six thousand years. Even if we transition fairly quickly to clean energy, half of the world’s human population will be exposed to life-threatening combinations of heat and humidity by 2100. Temperatures in parts of the world could rise so high that just stepping outside for a few hours, another study warned, “will result in death even for the fittest of humans.”

Life on Earth is like a finely calibrated machine, one that has been built by evolution to work very well within its design parameters. Heat breaks that machine in a fundamental way, disrupting how cells function, how proteins unfold, how molecules move. Yes, some organisms can thrive in higher temperatures than others. Roadrunners do better than blue jays. Silver Saharan ants can run across superhot desert sands that would kill other insects instantly. Microbes live in 170-degree hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. A thirty-year-old triathlete can handle a 110-degree day better than a seventy-year-old man with heart disease. And yes, we humans are remarkable creatures with a tremendous capacity to adapt and adjust to a rapidly changing world.

But to understand the dangers of extreme heat today, it helps to understand how we have lived with heat in the past. Among other things, we evolved clever ways to manage the heating and cooling of our bodies that gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge over competitors. To tell you about it, though, I have to go way back, because you can’t separate heat from the beginning of things.

Fourteen billion years ago, the universe was compressed into a stupendously hot, incredibly dense nugget, which then rapidly expanded. This nugget cooled as it swelled; its particles gradually slowed their frenzied motion and aggregated into clumps, which over time formed stars, planets — and us. How exactly life emerged out of the hot mess of the universe is only dimly understood. The most widely accepted theory is that life began around the volcanoes that rose above the ocean shortly after the earth formed, probably within the first hundred million years. The volcanoes were surrounded by hot geyser‑fed ponds and bubbling hot springs, which were loaded with organic compounds from the asteroids and meteors that bombarded the planet. Volcanoes acted as chemical reactors, creating a hot volcanic soup. Somehow, RNA molecules grew, eventually growing longer and more complex and folding into true proteins and double‑stranded DNA. They formed microbes that floated in thick mats on the volcanic ponds. When the ponds dried out, winds picked up their spores and spread them for miles. Rains eventually washed microbes into the ocean. “Once they reached the sea,” science author Carl Zimmer writes, “the whole planet came alive.”

Evolution’s next trick was developing a way for animals to deal with temperature fluctuations. In the long arc of evolution, two strategies have emerged: one is to let your body’s temperature change with the temperature around it, which is what creatures did for the first three and a half billion years or so. If necessary, these animals warm themselves by basking in sunlight or sitting on warm rocks. This heat management strategy survives today in fish, frogs, lizards, alligators, and all the reptiles and amphibians. Scientists call them ectotherms; you and I call them cold‑blooded.

But around 260 million years ago, a new heat management strategy emerged. Some animals found a way to control their own internal temperature that was not dependent on the temperature of their environment. In effect, it turns their bodies into little heat engines, allowing them to operate independently of the world outside — as long as they can maintain a steady temperature inside. This heat management strategy remains alive and well in animals that scientists call endotherms but that everyone else calls warm‑blooded: dogs, cats, whales, tigers, and virtually every other mammal on the planet, including us. Birds, which are flying dinosaurs, are also warm‑blooded. (“Birds are not like flying dinosaurs,” a scientist once corrected me. “They are flying dinosaurs.”)

The birth of warm‑bloodedness was an evolutionary leap, and one that scientists still don’t fully understand. For one thing, the traits of warm‑bloodedness do not transfer well to fossils, so you can’t just look at the bones of a long‑ago creature and determine whether it was warm‑ or cold‑blooded. For another, the transition from cold‑bloodedness to warm‑ bloodedness didn’t happen with a single quick jump. Many species — especially dinosaurs — had attributes of both.

At first glance, cold‑blooded creatures seem to have it easy. Because they cannot regulate their body temperature internally, they spend thirty times less energy than warm‑ blooded creatures of the same size. So, while mammals and birds are constantly investing their calories in maintaining a high, stable body temperature, reptiles and amphibians can just search for a warm spot in their surrounding environment if they want to get cozy. But if cold‑bloodedness is so great, why did mammals and birds develop a different strategy?

There are a lot of theories for why warm‑blooded animals evolved high, stable body temperatures. To name a few: a stable body temperature aids physiological processes, such as digestion and the absorption of nutrients; it helps animals maintain activity over longer periods of time; it enables par‑ ents to take care of precocial offspring. Warm‑bloodedness also allowed more precise and powerful functioning of certain cells in the nervous system, as well as in the heart and muscles.

Resistance to disease may have been another advantage. Insects bask in the sunlight to superheat their bodies and cook invading organisms; humans do the same by running a fever. But cold‑blooded creatures depend on external sources of heat to kill invaders. If it’s not hot out, a grasshopper can’t fry the dangerous microbes in its body. And if that grasshopper goes looking for a spot of sunshine, it might venture into new places and get picked off by a predator. Warm‑blooded animals don’t have that risk. They can rev up the heat engine wherever they are.

Warm‑blooded animals also move faster. John Grady, a biologist at the University of New Mexico, thinks the evolution to warm‑bloodedness was accelerated by the competitive advantage that comes with being a speedy predator. Higher body temperature equals higher metabolism, which equals quicker reactions and more active predation. “Imagine an iguana the size of a cow,” Grady told me. “These things existed. But they won’t exist in today’s world, because they are too slow. The closest thing we have are giant tortoises, and they have a strategy of just being armored. They don’t have to be fast. When you are big, being fast is important. I think getting killed is a real problem if you are big and cold‑blooded.”

Whatever the particular advantages of warm‑bloodedness may have been, it served mammals well. For the last seventy million years or so, they have spread across the globe, each creature a biological dynamo carrying its own fire inside. Their success gave rise, eventually, to a two‑legged primate that developed a big brain and an even more sophisticated heat management system to go with it. To get a glimpse of this remarkable creature, just look in the mirror.

In 1974, a pile of bones was found in the Awash River valley in Ethiopia by Donald Johanson, who, at the time, was a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The bones belonged to a female human ancestor who lived about 3.2 million years ago. Judging from her intact wisdom teeth and the shape of her hip bone, Johanson determined that she was a teenager when she died. He named her Lucy, after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which Johanson and his team had been listening to in camp when she was found.

It was a remarkable discovery, rewriting the story of human evolution. Even at the time, Lucy was not the oldest human ancestor ever found, but she filled an important gap in the evolutionary tree from early hominins (that is, all our human ancestors since we diverged from chimpanzees about seven million years ago) to modern humans. She was also remarkably well preserved for a girl who had been buried for more than three million years. She had a spine, pelvis, and leg bones very similar to those of modern humans. She did not yet have the brain size of a modern human, but she was positively, indisputably bipedal.

It took a while for our ancestors to learn to stand up. From the structure and shape of the fossils they’ve left behind, paleontologists know that early hominins hung out mostly in trees. On the ground, they moved on all fours, not unlike the way chimps do today.

But Lucy was different. The shape of her lower femur, as well as the development of her knee, indicate that she walked upright at least part of the time. But she wasn’t like us: she had wide hips and short legs. She was an evolutionary toddler just learning to venture out of the cover of the trees and onto the savanna.

The question is, what made Lucy stand up and start walking? It’s a much‑disputed subject among paleoanthropologists.

Some argue that it allowed our ancestors to carry tools better. Others believe that it helped them reach fruit high in trees. Still others suggest that bipedalism was the basis for monogamy and family, in that it allowed male hominins to go out and get food, which the female chimps would reward with companionship and sex.

Or standing up may have been a way of keeping cool. It allowed Lucy to catch breezes and help body heat to dissipate more easily. It also got her up off the ground, which is always significantly warmer than the air a few feet above it.

Whatever her motivation may have been, Lucy walked.

And it changed everything.

To understand the power of heat, you have to think of it not just as a change in temperature, but as an evolutionary hurdle. Heat management is a survival tool for all life on Earth, and the strategies to deal with it are as diverse and colorful as the animal kingdom itself.

Elephants are particularly fascinating. They spend a lot of time in the sun. To cool off, they seek shade and water. (In Botswana, I once watched a young elephant frolic in a muddy watering hole like a six year‑old kid at summer camp). Their thin hair and flapping ears help with heat dissipation. More importantly, as temperatures rise, their hides become more permeable. Their skin effectively opens up, allowing them to perspire, even though they don’t actually have sweat glands. Koalas hug trees with bark that is cooler than the air temperature. Kangaroos spit on their arms to wet them and cool off. Some squirrels use their bushy tails as parasols. Hippos roll in mud (water evaporates more slowly from mud, keeping them cool longer). Lions climb trees to get off the hot ground. Rabbits send blood to their big ears, using them as radiators. Vultures and storks defecate on their legs. Herons, nighthawks, pelicans, doves, and owls cool themselves with gular fluttering, a frequent vibration of their throat membranes, which increases airflow and thus increases evaporation. Giraffes’ beautifully patterned skin functions like a network of thermal windows. They direct warm blood to the vessels at the edges of the spots, forcing heat out of the animals’ bodies.

Other animals build structures to cool themselves, in some ways not so different from the way humans construct air‑conditioned buildings. Termites build an elaborate sys‑tem of air pockets within their mounds. Bees harvest water when they’re on their travels, then return to the hive and pass it by mouth to hive bees, which spread the droplets on the honeycomb. Other bees fan the water with their wings to cool the hive.

There aren’t many people who have thought more about heat as an evolutionary force than Jill Pruetz. For the past twenty years, she has spent a good part of every year in Senegal, near the village of Fongoli, where she has been studying chimpanzees that live in a hot environment. Pruetz has a way of talking about being among the chimps that suggests she knows them better than many people know their own children.

Pruetz and I met on a sunny spring day at a restaurant in Bastrop, Texas, near where she lives on a five‑acre farm. She grew up in south Texas and became fascinated with chimpanzees shortly after college, when she went to work at a chimpanzee center that bred chimps for biomedical research. She is now a professor of anthropology at Texas State, and runs the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project, where about thirty‑two chimps live in a 100‑square‑kilometer area, out‑ side the national park.

Pruetz and I sat at a wooden picnic table above the Colorado River and ate pizza while we talked. “I study chimps for a lot of reasons,” she told me. “But mostly because they are our closest living relative, and we can learn a lot about early human development by looking at how chimps behave and react to different kinds of stress in their lives.”

For the Fongoli chimps, heat is extremely stressful. During the hot dry season in Senegal, which peaks in March and April, the temperature can hit 120 degrees. “The heat is like a slap in the face,” Pruetz said. Trees are leafless. Water is scarce. Fires burn across their territory. These chimps live in the hottest, most arid place that chimps are known to exist. It is a brutal, apocalyptic landscape that is totally unlike the lush forests and jungles that every other chimp on the planet inhabits.

The chimps have been living on this piece of turf for a very long time. “Millennia,” Pruetz told me. Over time, the chimps gradually evolved a catalogue of strange behaviors — ones rarely if ever seen in others. Forest chimpanzees get enough water from the fruit in their diet, so they need less drinking water and can wander in search of food. The Fongoli chimps, by contrast, require daily drinking water and anchor themselves to reliable water sources in the arid landscape.

And while forest chimpanzees are active throughout the day, Pruetz found that the savanna chimpanzees rest for five to seven hours. Pruetz could often find them lurking in small caves in the dry season, and when the rainy season arrived, the chimpanzees would slip into newly formed ponds and bob there for hours. Forest chimpanzees typically spend all night in nests they build in trees. But at Fongoli, the research team noticed that the chimpanzees often made a late‑night racket.

During the hot season, the chimps totally change their behavior,” Pruetz told me. They stare at the sky, waiting for the rain they know is coming. At Fongoli, there are few trees, and the ones that are there don’t have many leaves for shade. On a hot day, Pruetz watched an adolescent chimp hiding in the shadow of a single tree trunk. As the day passed, the chimp moved with the shadow, trying to escape the heat.

Pruetz has also noticed something else, something that was perhaps key to the whole human story: in the heat, the Fongoli chimps spend more time standing up and walking around than chimps that live in cooler places.

Lucy lived in a rapidly changing world. It was nowhere near as rapidly changing as ours is today, but in evolutionary terms, it was on the move. The climate of East Africa was growing hotter and drier. Rain forests gave way to woodlands, and as the landscape opened up, the savanna emerged. “Over the past three to four million years, the scenery of East Africa shifted from the set of Tarzan to that of The Lion King,” writes Lewis Dartnell in Origins: How Earth’s History Shaped Human History. Ethiopia’s Rift Valley became a very complex environment, with woods and highlands, ridges, steep escarpments, hills, plateaus and plains, valleys, and deep freshwater lakes on the floor of the rift, which was gradually widening. Meanwhile, volcanoes like Mount Kilimanjaro were spewing pumice and ash across the whole region. New species like zebra were emerging from under the trees and appearing in the grasslands.

In this dynamic new world, Lucy had to be nimble. Water supplies were drying up and filling again with each passing rainstorm. Leopards and lions lurked in the ravines — she was both predator and prey (we think of the world that she lived in as so different from ours, but in fact, the creatures that made up East Africa at that time were similar to what is there today — lions and hyenas and elephants were all more or less the same). If the behavior of chimps today is any indi‑ cation, these early hominins weren’t exactly nimble — afraid of open ground, wary, fleeing back into the safety of trees whenever they could. The changing terrain, and the need to navigate through it, meant that the most vulnerable were killed by predators. But the most adaptive ones survived and thrived and learned new skills, including hunting with tools, which helped them shift away from a diet of fruit and termites and small forest creatures to a more meat‑centric diet, including gazelle and zebra, which they might have hunted in groups.

Kevin Hunt, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University who studies human evolution, believes bipedalism likely evolved gradually, over a million years or so. Lucy was an example of the first phase — she may have stood up both to escape the heat and to help her reach for fruit. The second phase, marked by the arrival of Homo erectus, had elongated limbs that allowed them to walk and run faster, a more slender body that better dissipated heat, and a more carnivorous diet.

But to take the next step in human evolution, to really allow our ancestors to range widely in the newly warmed world, they still needed one more key evolutionary innovation. They needed to learn how to sweat.

In our human ancestors, the evolution of the sweat gland is even more complex than the evolution of bipedalism. Bipedalism can be deduced from fossil bones. Sweat glands can’t. What is known about them can only be inferred by hints of behavior patterns found in other ways, and by the evidence we see in our own bodies and in the bodies of other animals.

What is clear is that as Lucy and her generation made their way out of the trees and into the savanna, they had to contend with heat in a way that they never did when living in the trees. In both cases, our ancestors came up with important innovations that still have big implications for how we live today.

First, there was sunlight to deal with. As they wandered out from under the trees, our ancestors were exposed to more and more ultraviolet radiation, which damages the cellular structure of skin and can harm DNA. So Lucy and her ancestors evolved the ability to produce melanin, the dark‑brown pigment that acts as a natural sunscreen. For several million years, our ancestors were all dark‑skinned. It was only after they migrated out of Africa and settled in more northern climates, and in high latitudes, that dark skin became an evolutionary disadvantage because it limited the sunlight getting through to trigger the production of vitamin D. So in regions where the sunlight was less intense, lighter skin had an advantage.

Dealing with heat was more complex. In warm‑blooded animals, more sunlight means more heat. More activity means more heat too. How far you can chase a wounded antelope in the heat depends on how well you manage heat. On the African plain, if you overheat, you go hungry. In addi‑ tion, our ancestors’ brains were evolving, and getting bigger. But big brains require a lot of cooling, and so developing a robust cooling system was important to advancing other skills, such as toolmaking.

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The solution that evolution came up with was to build what amounts to an internal sprinkler system that douses our skin with water when we get too hot. As the water evaporates, it carries the heat off with it, cooling off our skin and the blood circulating just below it. When that cooler blood circulates, it brings down the temperature in our bodies.

If you’ve ever ridden a horse on a hot day, you know that other animals sweat. Horses, as well as many other mammals, have a particular kind of sweat gland that is part of their hair follicles called an apocrine gland. It sends out a thick, milky white liquid. You see it most clearly on racehorses, which sometimes finish a race looking like their necks are covered in shaving cream (thus the origin of the phrase “get in a lather”). Many furred mammals have apocrine glands, including camels and donkeys, as well as chimpanzees. These glands help with heat management, but they can’t really dis‑ sipate a lot of heat fast.

Humans have some apocrine glands in our armpits and pubic areas, which are evolutionary leftovers from an earlier time. They respond to nerves as well as heat, and are why your armpits sweat in an interview, and also why your sweat has a particular odor. Some anthropologists think that smell is an ancient sexual attractant; that it’s one of the ways we got to know one another.

But while our ancestors were wandering around in the heat on the African savanna, chasing down antelopes, they also perfected a much better heat management tool, which is the eccrine sweat gland. Instead of creating a lather, it is basically a mechanism to squirt water on your body, which will then evaporate and cool you off. It’s simple but brilliant. Hominins didn’t invent the eccrine gland. Old World monkeys like macaques have equal parts eccrine and apocrine glands. Our closer relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, bear roughly two eccrine for every one apocrine gland. But beyond the apocrine leftovers in our armpits and pubic areas, human sweat glands are all eccrine.

Today, you and I have about two million of these sweat glands on our body. The glands themselves are like little coiled tubes buried in your skin. They are tiny, the size of a cell — you need a microscope to see them. They are not evenly distributed on your body: you have the most sweat glands on your hands, feet, and face, and the least on your butt. Sex differences are small. Women often have more sweat glands in any given area than men, but men often have a higher maximum sweating rate. The liquid the glands secrete is 99.5 percent water — its only function is to wet your skin. In hot weather, most people can easily sweat one quart per hour or 12 quarts a day, which is about ten times more than a chimp sweats.

To make our sweat glands even more effective, however, Lucy’s offspring made another evolutionary adjustment: they lost their body hair. For the evaporative sweat to really work, hair (or fur, which is just another name for hair on nonhuman animals) gets in the way, matting down when wet and interfering with the efficient transfer of heat away from your body. The only place we still have significant hair is on our heads, and that’s because our brains are so sensitive to heat, and in this situation, hair works as a sunshade to help keep our brains cool. (It also adds cushioning in a fall.)

The loss of hair on our bodies and the development of eccrine sweat glands were important evolutionary events, perhaps as important as the use of tools or fire. Other animals on the African savanna had developed heat stress strategies — the simplest of which is panting, as dogs do. But for a predator, panting is not a great strategy. A lion can move very fast for short distances, but it can’t pant while it runs. In the heat, it has to stop, rest, pant, and recover its thermal equilibrium. Humans figured out a way to keep cool in motion. We don’t have to stop and pant. We sweat as we go. In the story of human evolution, this was a very big deal. By managing heat, humans were able to go farther from water holes, begin long‑distance travel, and expand their hunting range.

Humans became excellent hot‑weather hunters. They could venture out in the heat of the day when other animals couldn’t, giving them a predatory advantage. By the time Homo erectus appeared about two million years ago, our ancestors were on their way to becoming endurance athletes, with long legs, nimble feet, and strong leg and hip muscles. With their superior heat management systems, they could literally run down an animal until it has heatstroke. This practice continues today. In the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, modern hunter‑gatherers are able to kill a kudu, a kind of antelope that is far faster than humans over short distances, by chasing it for hours in the middle of the hot day, until it literally collapses of heat exhaustion.

But the heat management strategies of humans, like all living things, has been optimized for the Goldilocks Zone we have been living in for the last 10,000 years or so. Now, as we move out of that world, the job of managing heat gets much more complicated – and much more dangerous.

If we can send photos through the air and drive a rover around on Mars, we can design new ways to live in hot places. You can see it happening right now in Paris and Los Angeles and many other cities around the world, where shade trees are being planted and streets painted white to deflect sunlight. Plant geneticists are developing new strains of corn and wheat and soybeans that can better tolerate high temperatures. Air conditioning is becoming cheaper and more widely used. Communication from public health officials about how to protect yourself during a heat wave is improving. Clothing companies are developing new high-tech fabrics to reflect away sunlight and dissipate heat more quickly.

But even for the wealthy and privileged, adaptation to extreme heat has its limits. And the notion that eight billion people are going to thrive on a hotter planet by simply cranking up the air-conditioning or seeking refuge under a pine tree is a profound misunderstanding of the future we are creating for ourselves. In western Pakistan, where only the richest of the rich have air conditioning, it’s already too hot for humans several weeks a year. Planting a few thousand trees is not going to save them. In India, I talked with families who live in concrete slums that are so hot they burn their hands opening doors. Holy cities like Mecca and Jerusalem, where millions gather on religious pilgrimages, are caldrons of sweat.

In a world of heat-driven chaos, heat exposes deep fissures of inequity and injustice. Poverty equals vulnerability. If you have money, you can turn up the air conditioning, stock up on food and bottled water, and install a backup generator in case there’s a blackout. If things get bad enough, you can sell your house and move to a cooler place. If you’re poor, on the other hand, you swelter in an uninsulated apartment or trailer with no air conditioning or an old, inefficient machine that you can’t afford to run. You can’t move somewhere cooler because you’re afraid of losing your job and you don’t have the savings to start over. “We’re all in the storm, but we’re not in the same boat,” Heather McTeer Toney, the former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, said during testimony before the US Congress. “Some of us are sitting on aircraft carriers while others are just bobbing along on a floatie.”

From Time

q17 Extreme Heat Is Hitting Companies Where It Hurts

BY JUSTIN WORLAND  JULY 13, 2023 12:34 PM EDT

It’s hot out there and getting hotter. The last few weeks have brought some of the highest temperatures on record at great cost to human health and wellbeing. For a moment, the office air conditioning can feel like a refuge from the extremes outside, but it may be time for businesses to start feeling the heat.

At the heart of the issue is what climate experts call “physical risk.” This term is somewhat self explanatory. The physical effects of climate change pose a physical risk to businesses’ assets and operations—think of hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding, to name a few. These extreme weather events are financially material, and hurt the bottom line. A 2021 report from Impax Asset Management Group found that two-thirds of large companies globally have at least one asset highly exposed to the physical risk of climate change; it’s likely the share of at-risk companies has grown since then.

“This is actually going to touch every sector,” Brian Deese, recently President Biden’s top economic advisor, told me in 2020 when he was the global head of sustainable investing at Blackrock. “Those risks, while they do accelerate out into the future, are more pressing on the market today than most market participants understand.”

Phenomena like fires and floods may be the most obvious example of physical risk, but heat falls into the same bucket. Indeed, a 2021 Moody’s report identified heat stress as one of two physical risks that affect almost every sector. In agriculture, heat can kill crops. That harms retailers, too, who are dependent on crops in their supply chain. For the travel industry, extreme heat can shift consumer demand—making some destinations desirable and others anathema. Across many sectors, heat stress makes it more difficult—and at times impossible—for employees to work outside.

A quick look at financial disclosures shows many big companies are already noting heat as a material financial risk to their operations. Walmart, for example, says the company is vulnerable to rising costs of cooling its massive facilities; Disney says excessive heat may affect demand for its tourism products.

And, if the direct impact on individual businesses weren’t enough, there’s also a macro effect to consider: a significant body of research now shows that extreme heat is a drag on the global economy. A study published in the journal Science Advances found that human-caused extreme heat cost the global economy as much as $29 trillion between 1992 and 2013. A different study from the Climate Impact Lab found that higher temperatures could reduce the average income globally by nearly a quarter by 2100 compared to a no-climate-change scenario.

Where does this all leave companies? Those with adequate resources are building programs to address heat risk. Walmart, for example, is assessing its supply chain to ensure it can bounce back from extreme weather—including heat stress—as part of a comprehensive climate program.

Beyond the week-to-week, month-to-month impact of heat, it’s also important to consider the role businesses can play in avoiding the worst possible heat. By cutting their own carbon emissions—and pushing a bigger societal shift toward a low-carbon economy—companies not only protect their own growth prospects but also the wellbeing of all of society.

From GUK

The planet heats, the world economy cools – the real global recession is ecological

Larry Elliott

Governments focus on the climate when they have few other economic worries. That can no longer be the case

Sun 9 Jul 2023 05.49 EDT

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First it was the pandemic. Then it was the war in Ukraine. Next it could be the climate crisis.

On Monday last week the world registered its hottest-ever day but the record lasted only 24 hours before it was beaten by an even more sizzling Tuesday. And while the temperature continues to warm up the global economy continues to cool down.

Germany is already in recession and plenty of other developed countries – including the UK – seem to be heading in that direction. China’s post-lockdown recovery has petered out, the US jobs market seems to be cooling in response to higher interest rates.

The combination of weak activity and the increasing number of extreme weather events is worrying. Normally, pressure on the environment intensifies during booms, which is why there were big surges in support for the green movement in the early 1970s, the late 1980s and the period immediately before the global financial crisis of 2008.

If, as seems likely, there will be no letup in global heating despite slower growth, that’s a real concern. The US economy may technically avoid falling into recession, but the fact that the recent Canadian forest fires led to New York City being choked in a noxious orange smog speaks of a planet heading for a catastrophic slump. In a sense, the real recession is the ecological one.

Generally, governments focus on the future of the planet when they feel they have nothing much else to worry about. That, at least, has been the record until now. Recessions – and even the threat of recessions – have the effect of making policymakers focus on the short term. Stretched public finances coupled with the desire to remain popular engenders a growth at all costs mentality. Fears are now surfacing about the costs of the transition to a cleaner, less carbon-intensive economy, particularly on those least able to bear them.

Make no mistake, some of these concerns are legitimate. Heat pumps are expensive. Electric cars are seen only in the driveways of the better off. Fossil fuels make up three-quarters of the UK’s energy mix and ending that dependency will be neither quick nor easy.

In the current circumstances, politicians think they have more pressing matters to deal with than hitting net zero goals. Action to tackle the climate emergency can be put off to another day when, fingers crossed, science and market forces will come up with a solution that will allow us all to consume as much as we like without destroying the planet.

This may be shortsighted. It may be dumb thinking. It no doubt infuriates the Just Stop Oil protesters who have made their presence felt at Lord’s and Wimbledon in recent days. But for those in positions of power, the temptation to delay action remains strong. Rishi Sunak’s plan to renege on the government’s £11.6bn pledge to help poor countries deal with climate change is a case in point. It would be an act of betrayal but one sadly in keeping with the prime minister’s lack of interest in the net zero agenda.

It would be wrong to assume it is only the politicians who are at fault. Our political masters respond to the signals they get from voters, and the message is by no means as clearcut as those urging more drastic action on the climate emergency would hope. In part, that’s due to the cost-of-living crisis, but it goes deeper than that.

Many support football teams sponsored by fossil fuel interests and the fans really don’t care if the new star striker is being bought with dirty Middle East oil money so long as he scores plenty of goals. People worry more about the future of the planet than they did when Fritz Schumacher wrote Small is Beautiful half a century ago, but what they really want is a painless transition that doesn’t force them to stop doing the things they like, such as driving to see friends and relatives or jetting off for a holiday abroad.

There is still time to step back from the edge of the abyss. For a start, the green movement needs to heal the divide between those backing no growth and those favouring sustainable growth, and focus on the real enemy: a form of capitalism that is eating itself.

Next, there is low-hanging fruit to be picked. Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute campaign group, says sport sponsorship was a key battleground in the successful struggle to end tobacco advertising and that fossil fuels have become the new tobacco. From football to cycling’s Tour de France, from the forthcoming rugby World Cup to athletics, Simms notes sport has long been dependent on the largesse of high-carbon promoters.

Some problems will be tougher to crack. The green transition would be easier were the UK a less unequal country. What’s more, Britain’s energy infrastructure is in a poor state and needs a lot of sustained investment if it is to be ready for the new power sources being developed, such as floating windfarms and hydrogen.

The IPPR, a left leaning thinktank, is proposing a £30bn a year public investment package, including in clean energy, which it says would improve the supply side of the economy, boost growth potential and be good for the public finances.

There are other suggestions for how the government might speed up the green transition, all of which meet with the same riposte: that the plans are unaffordable, irresponsible and the stuff of fantasy.

In truth, the real fantasists are those who cling to the belief that we can continue to exploit the natural world to satisfy our desires. If that’s what economics is about, we badly need a new economics.

From GUK

This year is set to be the hottest in history. Congress must act now

Bernie Sanders

If there is not bold, immediate action to address the climate crisis, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids is very much in question

Fri 7 Jul 2023 00.10 EDT

Tax the SUN! - DJI

The last eight years have been the eight hottest on record. This year is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, and this Fourth of July might have been the hottest day in the past 125,000 years.

Climate change is ravaging the planet. We are now seeing floods, droughts, extreme weather disturbances and wild fires causing unprecedented damage. If there is not bold, immediate and united action by governments throughout the world, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids and future generations is very much in question.

In the short term, we will be looking at more melting of the Arctic ice caps, rising sea levels and increased flooding. We will experience more drought and a decrease in food production. We will see major damage caused by intense storms, tornadoes and other extreme weather disturbances. We will see a decline in economic activity and the migration of millions of people as a result of water shortages. We will see a major disruption in all forms of marine life as a result of warming sea water and the acidification of the oceans,

Over last few weeks we’ve gotten a glimpse of what this dystopian future could look like. The unprecedented forest fires in Quebec, preceded by massive fires in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Alberta, have resulted in dangerously unhealthy air all across the United States. New York, Washington DC, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities have reported some of their worst air quality levels ever as people with chronic illness have been forced to remain indoors. Meanwhile, during this same period, Texas has experienced a record-breaking heat wave. In Corpus Christi the heat index, a measure of temperature combined with humidity, reached a 125F – close to the level at which humans are able to survive.

As a result of long-standing drought six western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have recently agreed to dramatically cut their water use. That river, which provides water for 40 million people and a $5tn-a-year agricultural industry, is drying up. The state of Arizona recently restricted future home-building in the Phoenix area due to a lack of groundwater, based on projections showing that wells will run dry under existing conditions.

Needless to say, climate change is not just an American issue. Despite the frightening impact of climate change on the United States, highly populated Asian countries are facing even worse challenges. Sea levels on China’s coastline have hit their highest on record for the second year in a row, rising more quickly than the global average. China’s coastal areas are home to approximately 45% of the country’s population of about 1.4 billion people, and contribute to over half of the country’s economic output. Major cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen are all located along the Chinese coast and could face catastrophic flooding in years to come – creating havoc with the entire Chinese economy.

Last year, India experienced a searing heat wave, during which parts of the country reached more than 120F. In 2022, India experienced its hottest April in 122 years and its hottest March on record. It experienced extreme weather on 242 out of 273 days between January and October 2022. Long-term projections indicate that Indian heat waves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050. The impact of these continued heat waves will not only result in more deaths and disease in India but will increase poverty as a result of reduced economic output.

From June to October 2022, heavy rainfall in Pakistan caused flooding and landslides at a rate nearly 10 times the national 30-year average. The floods affected nearly 33 million people, damaged 4.4 million acres of agricultural land and killed 800,000 livestock. In the aftermath, rising food prices exacerbated already stressed levels of hunger and malnutrition in the country. The number of people experiencing severe hunger has more than doubled since the floods hit in June: today, 14.6 million people are experiencing severe hunger in Pakistan and the malnutrition rates are dire.

Climate change is taking a major human, economic and environmental toll in Europe, the fastest warming continent of the world. The year 2022 was marked by extreme heat, drought and wildfires. Based on country data submitted so far, it is estimated that at least 15 000 people died in Western Europe alone specifically due to the heat in 2022. Among those, more than 4600 deaths in Spain, more than 1000 in Portugal, more than 3200 in the United Kingdom, and around 4500 people died in Germany as a result of extreme heat.

As devastating as climate change has been for the United States, Europe, China and other developed countries, its impact is even worse for the poorest countries on earth who lack the resources to protect their inhabitants from the growing hunger, disease and migrations that droughts and floods are causing. Here are a few examples as reported by the UN World Food Program:

South Sudan’s temperatures are increasing at two and half times the global average. This has resulted in extreme weather events including four consecutive years of flooding that have left half the country underwater. The unprecedented flooding has swallowed large swathes of the country while other parts are grappling with devastating drought. Today, some 64% of the country’s population (7.7 million people out of 12 million total) are experiencing severe hunger.

In February of 2022, Madagascar was hit with four tropical cyclones. These storms destroyed infrastructure, decimated rice crops and left over 270,000 people in urgent need of food. Today, nearly 2 million people in Madagascar are experiencing hunger and are in need of humanitarian assistance

In Somalia, there is no end in sight to the drought in that extremely poor country. Somalia has experienced five failed rainy seasons, drying up crops and killing livestock. This has resulted in 6.5 million people facing crisis levels of hunger.

It is no great secret that human beings are not particularly anxious to address painful realities – especially when it requires taking on powerful special interests like the fossil fuel industry. This time we must.

Our Earth is warming rapidly. We see this every day in every part of the world.

Drought, floods, forest fires and extreme weather disturbances are increasing. We see this every day in every part of the world.

Hunger, disease and human migrations are increasing. We see this every day in every part of the world.

Instead of denying this obvious reality, instead of doing the bidding of oil and coal companies, instead of fomenting a new cold war with China, members of Congress must develop an unprecedented sense of urgency about this global crisis. We must bring the world together NOW to address this existential threat. Failure to act will doom future generations to a very uncertain future. For the sake of our common humanity we cannot allow that to happen.

· Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chairman of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress

From Guardian U.K.

Q37 Sweltering weather has left swaths of the US baking. A ‘heat tsar’ could help, experts say

Rising temperatures are leaving governments scrambling to prepare – a federal body could help them share best practices

Dharna Noor

Fri 7 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT

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Record-breaking temperatures. Millions under heat alerts. Hikers dying on hot trails.

As large swaths of the US bake under sweltering heat, some advocates and officials say the Biden administration should consider appointing a “heat tsar” to manage a response.

The Earth saw its two hottest days in recorded history this week as parts of the south-west roasted, and as a stretch of the south endured a brutal heat dome that was parked over Texas for weeks.

Heat kills more Americans than any other form of extreme weather. The threat is increasing amid the climate crisis and will accelerate, especially if the world doesn’t urgently stop burning fossil fuels.

In response, Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; and Miami-Dade county, Florida have all appointed chief heat officers – or “heat tsars” – over the past three years, as have at least six global cities.

“It’s been very valuable for us in the city to have a permanent office dedicated to heat,” Kate Gallego, the mayor of Phoenix, whose administration created the nation’s first-ever office of heat response and mitigation in 2021, helmed by chief heat officer David Hondula. “Before, it wasn’t always clear who was in charge.”

Rising temperatures have been brutal in Phoenix, the hottest city in America. Last year, Maricopa county reported 425 heat-associated deaths, a 25% increase from the previous year.

It’s a trend affecting regions across the US, leaving governments scrambling to prepare. A federal body could help them share best practices, said Gallego.

“We have probably 30 ideas about how to respond to heat,” she said. “If New Orleans already knows 25 of them but they benefit from five new ones, that could be incredible. It’s the same for mayors in Texas, who have lost too many lives already.”

Gallego says that such a federal body could be helpful for historically temperate regions like the Pacific north-west, where hundreds died in a record-breaking 2021 heat dome.

She recalled rare floods in Phoenix in 2014, her first year in office.

“We didn’t have huge expertise in responding to flooding, but the federal government does, and they were able to provide consulting through Fema that helped me understand where to get an emergency supply of sandbags, for instance, or what tools are available if your fire station gets flooded,” she said.

Traditionally hot regions also sorely need more federal support, said Jane Gilbert, who has served as Miami-Dade county’s first chief heat officer since May 2021. That support is needed with collecting data on deaths and injuries to capture the true toll of heat waves.

“Heat could be the cause of … cardiac arrest, of a worker falling off a ladder, a psychotic break in a homeless person, of kidney failure in an outdoor worker, but it’s not necessarily coded as heat-related, so we don’t have good data on emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths,” she said, adding that federal officials could help compile research and convene experts to navigate the problem.

The Biden administration has taken steps to improve heat preparedness. Last summer, it unveiled Heat.gov, an interagency heat-focused website. The site, which tools such as heat index guides, a heat and health tracker, and a climate and health forecast, has improved communication between federal agencies and local officials, Gilbert said.

While the National Weather Service has traditionally based heat alerts on how often certain thresholds are crossed in certain areas, for instance, it is beginning to consider health impacts of heat, thanks to input from the CDC, she said. To kick off these efforts, it’s piloting a program this summer in Miami-Dade county that lowers heat alert thresholds. Heat advisories will be issued at 105F (40.5C) instead of the previous level of 108F, and excessive heat warnings will be issued at 110F (43C) instead of 113F (45C) – changes Gilbert said could help keep people safe.

But Juley Fulcher, health and safety advocate at consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, said while Heat.gov has produced useful tools, it has not led to policy changes or increased material support.

“Interagency actions in Washington, have a history of not functioning as well as we might like them,” she said. “If there is that kind of concerted effort, there has to be some concerted funding put toward it [and] you can’t just take somebody who has a job that takes up 100% of their time and say, ‘here’s 20% more work to do.’”

A heat-focused office could see ongoing policies through to completion, she said. For years, Fulcher has pushed for a federal rule to protect workers from heat, which her organization found could save hundreds of lives each year. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration began creating the rules in 2021, but the process could take “a couple of years” to finish, she said. A heat office could ensure the rule’s completion is a priority, and could go even further to protect workers, distributing more educational materials to employers and conducting more research on risks.

Federal officials could help boost preparedness in other ways too, said Gallego, the Phoenix mayor. Currently, she is pressuring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make heat eligible for the same relief available after other disasters like hurricanes – something a heat tsar could also see through.

Without those formal structures, said Gilbert, officials’ responses may be less sophisticated. Until her role was created, Miami-Dade’s response to extreme heat mirrored plans for extreme cold.

“With the unsheltered population, it was about getting people into shelters overnight when it’s coldest, but with heat, the biggest time of day that we need to worry about is from noon to 7pm,” she said. Now, responders are focused on getting people into daytime cooling centers, and are being trained to distribute cold packs and cooling towels.

In another example, Cecilia Sorensen, director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University, said that amid the Pacific north-west’s unprecedentedly deadly 2021 heat dome, the region had no disaster protocol plan for heat.

“They activated their only disaster protocol, which was related to earthquakes,” she said. “That got all the right people on the phone to be able to coordinate, but that’s an example of … unpreparedness.”

Sorensen agreed that municipalities need help responding, but added that a new office or “tsar” might not be the answer.

“Each geographic area is is very unique,” she said. “And so much of the work to really prepare communities to be resilient involves engagement of community members and other stakeholders, and I don’t think the federal government can really convene at that level.”

Instead, she suggests that officials focus on boosting existing bodies that can support municipalities. In 2021, the Biden administration established the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity within the US Department of Health and Human Services. But a lack of congressional funding and authorization has left it without full-time staff or funding, she said.

“We should fund the office that’s supposed to be doing this work, rather than creating a whole new system in the executive branch,” she said.

But Gallego said heat is an urgent enough threat to warrant its own office.

“It’s time that the federal government had a new tool to address heat. Our entire planet is experiencing climate change and we need to adapt to that fact,” she said. “If the federal government created a one stop location for heat, they could save so many lives.”

And...

As heat records break, the climate movement has the right answers – but the words are all wrong

Jonathan Freedland

The fossil fuel industry has spent billions on winning over the public. Green activists must learn from its tactics

Fri 14 Jul 2023 15.36 EDT

You may think we have all the proof we need. More of it is in front of us right now, with heatwaves scorching through Europe, breaking records, wreaking havoc. In Athens, they closed the Acropolis on Friday as temperatures at the site headed towards 48C. In Lisbon, visitors expecting perfect blue skies have been disappointed to find them streaked with grey – not clouds, but smoke from forest fires. In Italy, there was no spring this year: floods gave way to unbearable heat with barely a pause.

It’s happening all over – biblical downpours in New York state, unquenchable fires in Canada – and yet humanity is not acting as if it is confronting a planetary emergency. Extreme weather is fast becoming the norm in the US, and yet Americans tell pollsters it is a low priority, ranking it 17th out of 21 national issues in a recent Pew survey. Even when the impact is personal, as it was for many Australians when bushfires raged through the country in 2019, opinions prove stubbornly hard to shift: one study found that among those “directly impacted” by the fires, around a third saw no connection to the climate. They were “unmoved.”

How can this be? How can we, like Nero, fiddle while the Earth burns? Some of the explanation lies in human nature. As a species, we tend to prioritise the urgent over the important: “Thanks to our evolutionary history, we’re programmed to deal with the lion coming from the woods, not to strategise how to save our civilisation over the next hundred years,” Jeff Goodell, author of an essential new book, The Heat Will Kill You First, tells me.

There is, too, the syndrome captured so well by the movie Don’t Look Up, namely the very human inability to contemplate our own destruction. We will find almost any excuse to look elsewhere, to find something immediate and diverting: in Britain this week, it was the alleged conduct of a BBC TV presenter. But there’s always something.

Those faults are in our stars; they are hard to change. And yet there are other explanations that are more susceptible to remedy. Most obvious is the fact that a vastly wealthy industry has spent billions to make people think the way they do. In just the three years following the Paris accords, five of the largest fossil fuel companies spent over $1bn on communications and lobbying.

But the effort goes back decades, centred on selling one commodity above all: doubt. Like the tobacco industry before it, oil and gas has sought to persuade the global public that they can’t be sure the climate crisis is real or human-made or that serious. It’s been hugely effective. To take just one number: only about one in seven Americans understand that there is a consensus among climate scientists, defined as more than 90% having “concluded that human-caused global warming is happening”.

This specific problem, like the climate crisis itself, is made by human beings – which is simultaneously enraging and encouraging. Enraging, because it is born of a greed that puts gargantuan profit ahead of a habitable planet. Encouraging, because most problems made by human beings can be fixed by them. Enter the climate movement – the scientists, the activists, the campaigners who have done so much for so long to combat this threat. Except, it turns out, they are part of the problem too.

The trouble is, they have not been communicating the threat loudly enough or in the right way. And some of the most committed fighters in this battle are saying so.

Start with the most basic terms. “Global warming” was rightly rejected by many some time ago, not least because, as Goodell writes, it “sounds gentle and soothing, as if the most notable impact of burning fossil fuels will be better beach weather”. But talk of heat is not much more apt: “In pop culture, hot is sexy. Hot is cool. Hot is new.”

Yet “climate change” doesn’t work either. Mere “change” is too gentle: it doesn’t indicate whether the change will be negative or positive. It is not immediate: it hints that its consequences will be felt only in the future, when we are feeling them right now. Which is why this newspaper is right to speak of a climate crisis or emergency.

But there are multiple other terms favoured by the climate cognoscenti that fall at a more basic hurdle: they are simply not understood by the wider public. Net zero, decarbonisation. 1.5C – when tested, they meet blank faces. People either don’t know what they mean or find them confusing. David Fenton, a longtime PR specialist for progressive causes, cites as one example the phrase “climate justice”. When most voters hear the word “justice”, he tells me, they think of courts or police; bolt it to “climate”, and people are not moved, just confused.

Of course, this connects to a perennial problem for the left – which so often makes its case using statistics and abstract concepts, rather than simple images and emotion. (Think of the remain campaign.) Fenton urges the climate community to speak of pollution – a word everyone gets – and to settle on the image of a “blanket of pollution trapping heat on Earth”. Every oil and gas emission makes that blanket thicker – and all that trapped heat helps cause floods and start fires, he says.

Once settled on, that metaphor has to be deployed again and again, repeated so often it becomes exhausted – and exhausting – to those using it. This too clashes with progressive habit, which tends to hold to the “enlightenment fallacy”: the belief that the facts will persuade all by themselves. They don’t need to be repeated or simplified or embedded in moral or emotional stories: their sheer truth will prevail.

Perhaps this is why the climate movement has devoted relatively few resources to reaching or persuading the public, outside of periodic fundraising drives – certainly nothing to compete with their polluting opponents, who hire ad men steeped in marketing science to push their message relentlessly. “We’re in a propaganda war, but only one side is on the battlefield,” says Fenton.

To enter the fight will require serious donors to dig deep, but also a change of mindset. Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, who now hosts the aptly named Outrage + Optimism podcast, admits that the climate community has recoiled from marketing, which it regarded as “sort of tainted. It’s icky. You know, ‘We’re too good for marketing. We’re too righteous’… hopefully we’re getting over it.”

It needs to do that fast, deploying whatever tools work to push a double message: both fear and hope. Fear for all the beauty, life and lives that will be lost from a parched planet – and hope that we still have time to avert the worst.

And, again...

US Republicans oppose climate funding as millions suffer in extreme weather

Nearly 90 million Americans are facing heat alerts this week, yet GOP members are wrangling over spending to reduce emissions

Dharna Noor

Thu 13 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT

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Swaths of the US are baking under record-breaking heat, yet some lawmakers are still attempting to block any spending to fight the climate crisis, advocates say.

Nearly 90 million Americans are facing heat alerts this week, including in Las Vegas, Nevada, which may break its all-time hottest temperature record; Phoenix, Arizona, which will probably break its streak of consecutive days of temperatures over 110F; and parts of Florida, where a marine heatwave has pushed up water temperatures off the coast to levels normally found in hot tubs.

Stifling heat is also blanketing parts of Texas, which for weeks earlier this summer sweltered under a record-shattering heat dome which one analysis found was made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Despite this, the state’s Republican senator Ted Cruz is rallying his fellow GOP members of the Senate commerce committee to circulate a memo attacking climate measures in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget, Fox News reported on Wednesday.

The memo specifically calls on Republican members of the Senate appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee to reject spending provisions focused on climate resilience and environmental justice efforts for scientific agencies. In one example, the memo objects to a Nasa request to fund its Sustainable Flight National Partnership, which seeks to help zero out planet-warming pollution from aviation.

“If the goal is to make imperceptible changes in CO₂ emissions as part of the administration’s zealous effort to micromanage global temperatures, then Nasa should abandon such wasted mental energy. Nasa should not become a plaything for anti-fossil fuel environmentalists,” the memo says.

It should come as no surprise that Cruz, who has accepted massive donations from oil and gas companies, is defending the fossil fuel industry’s interests, said Allie Rosenbluth, US program co-manager at the environmental advocacy and research non-profit Oil Change International.

“What is really devastating for communities who are experiencing extreme heat, wildfires, flooding and drought across the US is that because of these bought-out politicians, they are not getting the support that they need to be resilient in the face of climate impacts at the federal level,” she said.

House Republicans are fighting climate spending, too. To avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers must pass a slew of spending bills before current funding expires on 30 September. But Republican members of the GOP-controlled House appropriations committee are slipping in anti-climate provisions, which aim to block renewable energy funding and imperil federal efforts to tackle the climate crisis, into their spending bill drafts.

Last week, the Clean Budget Coalition – a group of non-profits such as the League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund and Public Citizen – identified at least 17 of these “climate poison pills” in appropriation bill drafts. Among them are amendments that would prevent the federal government from purchasing electric vehicles or building EV charging stations; block funding for the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries meet their climate goals under the Paris agreement; and prohibit funding for a Department of Energy initiative aiming to send 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to flow to disadvantaged communities.

What is really devastating for communities who are experiencing extreme heat, wildfires, flooding and drought is ... not getting the support that they need to be resilient

Allie Rosenbluth

Elizabeth Gore, senior vice-president for political affairs at Environmental Defense Fund, said these proposals will impede lawmakers’ chance to reach a budget deal before their fall deadline.

“This is not a starting point for any reasonable negotiations,” she said in a release.

Early last month, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. David Shadburn, senior government affairs advocate at the League of Conservation Voters, said that from his perspective, that agreement didn’t include nearly enough government funding, but now, Republicans are trying to cut funding even more.

“We wanted to see more spending. We thought the deal was insufficient,” he said. “But a deal is a deal and yet what Republicans immediately did was go back on it.”

All Republican representatives can submit proposals to the House appropriations committee and no member is required to sign off on specific proposals. So it’s not clear who is responsible for each “poison pill”. But Shadburn noted that not a single Republican member of the House voted for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included the most climate spending of any bill in US history and that Republican representatives have also repeatedly attempted to overturn the bill’s climate provisions.

“The entire House Republican conference is on the record here … [including] those representing places that are seeing extreme weather,” he said.

House Republicans also recently proposed an array of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act aiming to limit the Pentagon’s deployment of electric vehicles, Shadburn said.

One of them, which would force the defense department to terminate contracts for electric non-combat vehicles, came from Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, whose state is preparing for triple-digit heat this week. Another, which would authorize soldiers and civilians at the US army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona to use fossil fuel-powered vehicles, came from Representative Paul Gosar from Arizona, where heat last Friday was comparable to “some of the worst heatwaves this area has ever seen”, according to the National Weather Service.

“In addition to the extreme heat in the south-west and elsewhere, there’s massive flooding in Vermont and New York … yet the House this week is spending their time debating just how many climate attacks they should include in the defense authorization,” said Shadburn. “It just shows how unserious they are about doing anything significant to tackle the climate crisis.”

And more...

Big oil quietly walks back on climate pledges as global heat records tumble

Energy firms have made record profits by increasing production of oil and gas, far from their promises of rolling back emissions

Dharna Noor

Sun 16 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT

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It was probably the Earth’s hottest week in history earlier this month, following the warmest June on record, and top scientists agree that the planet will get even hotter unless we phase out fossil fuels.

Yet leading energy companies are intent on pushing the world in the opposite direction, expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative. It is evidence that they are motivated not by record warming, but by record profits, experts say.

“The fossil fuel industry has massively profited from selling a dangerous product and now innocent people and governments across the globe are paying the price for their recklessness,” Naomi Oreskes, a history of science professor at Harvard University who studies the oil industry, said.

Oil majors have, over the past several years, rolled out pledges to decrease oil and gas production and slash their emissions, citing concerns about the climate crisis. But more recently, many have walked those plans back.

Amid record-shattering warmth this February, BP scaled back an earlier goal of lowering its emissions by 35% by 2030, saying it will aim for a 20 to 30% cut instead. ExxonMobil quietly withdrew funding for a heavily publicized effort to use algae to create low-carbon fuel. And Shell announced that it would not increase its investments in renewable energy this year, despite earlier promises to dramatically slash its emissions.

Climate-fueled extreme weather persisted through spring and summer. But fossil fuel companies have only doubled down on their oil- and gas-filled business models. Shell promised to cut oil production by 20% by 2030, but then this year said it already met that goal by selling off some operations to another oil company –thereby not reducing emissions in the atmosphere. BP has also expanded gas drilling. And Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, told an industry conference last month that his company plans to double the amount of oil produced from its US shale holdings within the next five years.

A Shell spokesperson said the company believes “society needs to take action on climate change”, and said that the company had made “no fundamental change” to its climate pledges and was making progress toward those goals.

“It remains our view that global energy demand will continue to grow and be met by different types of energy – including oil and gas,” he said. “In that scenario, a balanced energy transition plays well into our portfolio – one that delivers more value, with less emissions by focusing on performance, discipline and simplification.”

But Dan Cohn, global energy transition researcher at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said that the oil industry’s climate plans should not be taken at “face value”.

“They have left no doubt that their pledges were deployed for cynical political purposes, only to be ditched when they no longer suited the industry’s strategic position,” he said.

That strategic position was to avoid being governed, said Timmons Roberts, professor of environment and sociology at Brown University.

“The climate commitments … were almost certainly made to give the impression that they don’t need to be regulated because their voluntary pledges are adequate,” he said.

He said climate pledges became popular while fossil fuels were becoming less profitable years ago, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas prices have risen – in fact, fossil fuel companies saw record profits last year.

The fossil fuel industry has massively profited from selling a dangerous product and now innocent people and governments across the globe are paying the price for their recklessness

“It became clear that they’re motivated by profits,” said Roberts, adding that the drive is unsurprising, since CEOs of public companies can be removed if they do not maximize profit growth.

Fossil fuel executives sometimes suggest that fossil fuel expansion is necessary. Last Thursday – just after Earth broke an unofficial record for its hottest day ever for the third day in a row – the TotalEnergies CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, told CNBC that his company will continue to pour the majority of its investments into fossil fuels.

“Today, our society requires oil and gas,” he said. “There is no way to think that overnight we can just eliminate all that.”

Pouyanne is not alone. In an interview published the same day, Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, said curbing oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible”.

“The reality is, the energy system of today continues to desperately need oil and gas,” Sawan told BBC. “And before we are able to let go of that, we need to make sure that we have developed the energy systems of the future – and we are not yet, collectively, moving at the pace [required for] that to happen.”

But though “nobody expects fossil fuel demand to disappear overnight”, Cohn said, there is ample evidence that we can transition away from them over the coming years – and indeed, that we must if we are to secure a livable climate.

Roberts said these comments exemplify the “discourses of climate delay” that the fossil fuel industry employs to intentionally push off climate action and that were documented in a 2020 study on the topic which he co-authored. In preparing their climate plans, oil companies relied heavily on the discourse of “fossil fuel solutionism” – or claiming they had the solutions to slow warming. But now that the transition seems less immediately profitable, they are employing other tactics, such as “change is impossible”, which the 2020 paper defines as “a discourse that reifies the current state of things and denies the ability of societies to organize large socio-economic transformations”.

No matter what strategy they employ at any given time, the industry has “done everything they can to block climate action and keep us dependent on their products”, said Oreskes.

To foster a real energy transition, said Roberts, leaders must stop believing that energy companies will voluntarily change their business models. He likened politicians’ behavior to the gag in the Peanuts comic, wherein Charlie Brown repeatedly attempts to kick a football held up by Lucy, even though she always pulls it away and lets him fall over.

“The oil companies keep holding up the football,” he said. “Are we gonna ask them hold it again for us? I don’t think we should.”

Q25From NOAA

June marked by record-setting U.S. heat waves, severe weather

Nation struck with 12 separate billion-dollar disasters so far this year

June 2023 was record hot for some parts of the U.S., while other locations were roiled by severe weather and poor air quality, according to experts from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

The year so far has also brought 12 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters to the nation — including tornado outbreaks, extreme flooding and a winter storm.

Below are more highlights from NOAA's U.S. monthly climate report for June:

Climate by the numbers

June 2023

The average June temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 69.0 degrees F (0.5 of a degree above average), ranking in the middle third of the 129-year climate record. 

Temperatures were above average from the Pacific Northwest to the northern Plains, as well as in the southern Plains and the Florida Peninsula. North Dakota saw its third-warmest June on record, while Louisiana and Minnesota each had a top-10 warmest June on record. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Virginia had their ninth- and 10th-coolest Junes on record, respectively.

June precipitation across the U.S. was 2.85 inches — 0.08 of an inch below average — ranking in the middle third of the historical record. 

Wisconsin and Michigan each had their fifth-driest June on record, while Illinois and Missouri both had a top-10 driest June. Wyoming saw its third-wettest June on record with Colorado and Maine having one of their top-10 wettest Junes.

Year to date (YTD, January through June 2023)

The YTD average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 49.2 degrees F, (1.7 degrees above the 20th-century average), ranking as the 21st-warmest such YTD on record. Florida’s January–June period ranked as its warmest on record while Massachusetts had its second-warmest. An additional 27 states had a top-10 warmest such YTD, while no state saw its top-10 coolest January–June.

The YTD precipitation total was 15.70 inches, 0.39 of an inch above average, which ranked in the middle-third of the record. Precipitation was above average from California to the Rockies and in parts of the southern Mississippi Valley, northern Great Lakes, Southeast and Northeast. Conversely, precipitation was below average across parts of the Northwest, northern and central Plains, Southwest, central Mississippi Valley, Mid-Atlantic and along parts of the Gulf Coast.

Billion-dollar disasters (January–June)

There were 12 individual billion-dollar weather and climate disasters across the U.S. during the first six months of 2023, including: 

· One winter storm event.

· One flooding event.

· 10 severe weather events.

These events caused 100 direct and indirect fatalities and produced more than $32.7 billion in damages, Consumer Price Index (CPI)-adjusted. This puts this year’s number of events and price tag in second place, behind the first six months of 2017 (14 disasters) and 2021 ($42.5 billion), respectively. 

Since 1980, when NOAA began tracking these events in the U.S., the nation has sustained 360 separate weather and climate disasters where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (based on the CPI adjustment to 2023) per event. The total cost of these 360 events exceeds $2.570 trillion.

Other notable highlights from this report

· The heat was on: A series of heat waves brought record-breaking temperatures to portions of the U.S. during June 2023.

· An early June heat wave brought life-threatening conditions to Puerto Rico as heat index values reached as high as 125 degrees F. On June 6, San Juan set a new daily temperature record of 95 degrees F.

· A heat wave brought record heat to portions of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes during early June. Daily temperature records were set in parts of Michigan, New York and Vermont.

· A heat wave had temperatures soar well above 100 degrees F across parts of the southern Plains. On June 24, the temperature at Rio Grande Village, Texas, topped out at 119 degrees F — 1 degree below the all-time temperature record for the state.

· Severe weather struck several locations: A number of weather systems produced severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that impacted portions of the U.S. in June.

· June 14-19: A tornado outbreak, including two EF-3 tornadoes, occurred across parts of the southern U.S. and Ohio Valley.

· June 16: A severe storm brought tornadoes and flash flooding to parts of Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola International Airport received more than nine inches of rainfall, surpassing the previous daily record set in 1985.

· June 20-26: More than 70 tornadoes were confirmed, including two EF-3 tornadoes, resulting in loss of life and widespread damage across portions of the Great Plains, Midwest and eastern U.S.

· Wildfires sent smoke southward: Thick smoke from Canadian wildfires created air quality issues for millions of people in portions of the Northeast and Great Lakes this June. 

· June 7: Around 100 million people across 16 states were under air quality alerts while New York City reported the worst air quality of major cities worldwide. 

· June 27: Wildfire smoke impacted a large portion of the Midwest, resulting in the city of Chicago having the worst air quality of major cities worldwide.

More > Access NOAA’s latest climate report and download the images.

AND, from GUK

Meet the DC thinktank giving big oil ‘the opportunity to say they’ve done something’

The fossil fuel industry has a long history of hiring PR firms to sow confusion about climate change – but the Climate Leadership Council isn’t just a front group

Adam Lowenstein

Sun 9 Jul 2023 05.00 EDT

The New York Times op-ed opened on a provocative note: “There is a real danger that the climate debate is deteriorating into a game of name-calling,” it began, “with oil and gas companies all too often portrayed as opponents of climate progress.”

The January 2020 article was written by the founder of the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), a Washington DC-based non-profit that advocates for scrapping certain fossil fuel regulations and replacing them with a carbon tax, with the proceeds from the tax returned to Americans as a rebate. Among the group’s “corporate founding members” are some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, including Shell, BP and, until 2021, Exxon – companies that have indeed spent decades, and billions of dollars, opposing climate progress.

The CLC launched in 2017 with a report by a “who’s who” of pre-Trump Republican officials and insiders, including former Republican cabinet secretaries James Baker and George Shultz. Since then the CLC and its lobbying arm have steadily attracted elite media coverage and supporters, including current the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen. “There is wide agreement among economists that this is the most effective and market-friendly way to reduce carbon emissions,” Yellen told the Washington Post in 2020.

The fossil fuel industry has a long history of hiring public relations firms to create front groups to obstruct climate legislation and sow confusion and doubt about climate change. But the CLC is not a front group. The organization’s “carbon dividends” proposal is real.

Last month when a bipartisan pair of US senators introduced a bill that lays the groundwork for a carbon tariff, the Prove It Act, that lays the groundwork for a carbon tariff, the CLC hailed the move as “an important step towards better understanding, and ultimately leveraging, America’s carbon advantage”.

To its critics, however, the policy details of the CLC plan and those it supports are secondary to what the group itself offers its oil and gas industry members: a climate change “solution” that they can be for – one that, conveniently, stands little chance of becoming law.

As fossil fuel companies continue lobbying against climate legislation, funding anti-climate politicians, bringing home sky-high profits from oil and gas sales, and doubling down on business models anchored on fossil fuel extraction and consumption, public participation in a “climate leadership council” appears to be an asset that corporations can deploy to perform the role of problem-solver while justifying their opposition to other laws and regulations.

“There is a part of me that sees this as, ‘We can hold industry accountable a little bit without having to be in a place of discomfort, [without] holding them accountable in the way that climate change, environmental injustice, requires,” said Dana Johnson, the senior director of strategy and federal policy at We Act for Environmental Justice. “I think it gives people the opportunity to say that they’ve done something … It’s safe.”

Titled “The conservative case for carbon dividends”, the original CLC report called for a steadily rising carbon tax that “might begin at $40 a ton”, with the proceeds returned to Americans in checks estimated to start around $2,000 a year for a family of four. The plan also featured a tariff on imports from countries without carbon pricing to discourage commerce from moving abroad and to give “lower-emitting US manufacturers … a competitive advantage”, said Greg Bertelsen, the group’s CEO, in a statement emailed to the Guardian.

The final plank of the CLC’s original plan was the repeal of not just federal emissions regulations but the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon emissions at all. And buried in that section was another line that would be easy to miss: that a carbon tax “would also make possible an end to federal and state tort liability for emitters”. This otherwise innocuous sentence captured what Richard Wiles, the head of the non-profit Center for Climate Integrity, called the oil and gas industry’s “number one thing”: legal immunity for companies’ contributions to global warming and to the damages of climate change, and for their decades-long campaigns to deceive the public and obstruct legislative action.

The CLC removed the liability provision from its proposal in September 2019. “Misinformation on the issue was distracting focus away from the many economic and environmental upsides of the plan,” Bertelsen said. Asked whether the organization would consider resurrecting some sort of liability waiver if it meant gaining industry support for carbon dividends legislation, the CEO said that “we have no plans to revisit the issue”.

But the CLC’s agenda might differ from that of its industry backers. “No one is fooled into thinking [that] because they took it off their website,” oil and gas companies won’t continue to push for a liability waiver, Wiles said. Even Axios, which has given the CLC steady coverage and space to make its case, noted that “a similar proposal can always be added in the actual legislative process.”

The CLC’s support is not limited to the fossil fuel industry. Among the group’s corporate founding members were Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy, two environmental non-profits. Today it also counts as organizational partners companies such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and JPMorgan Chase.

But the CLC’s partners also include BP, Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips and mining giant BHP; until 2021, one of its most prominent members was ExxonMobil. In response to questions from the Guardian about the organization’s backing from companies that have helped create and sustain the climate crisis, the CLC sent a statement that echoed the founder’s New York Times op-ed: “Energy companies have the scale, research and development budgets, expertise and infrastructures needed to expand low-carbon energy technologies … and to pioneer new technological breakthroughs.”

If fossil fuel giants can indeed contribute to the CLC, the companies have found ways for their membership to contribute to them in return. Exxon’s trajectory is illustrative. Even before the CLC officially revealed its corporate supporters in June 2017, Exxon’s chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, announced the company’s support during its annual shareholder meeting. Not long after, Exxon began peppering public filings and corporate publications with mentions of its membership. In the company’s next “corporate citizenship report”, Exxon wrote that its participation in the CLC was evidence of how Exxon was “engaging on climate change policy”. The following year Exxon’s sustainability report included multiple mentions of its CLC membership.

On 8 October 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a monumental assessment warning that keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C “would require rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”, including deep emissions cuts. The very next day, as University of Miami climate disinformation expert Geoffrey Supran noted, Exxon announced it would donate $1m over two years to Americans for Carbon Dividends, the CLC’s lobbying arm. The $500,000 that Exxon would give in 2018 paled in comparison to the $11.15m the company would spend lobbying that year–let alone the $71.9bn it would report in revenue that quarter. Yet the donation nevertheless earned the company headlines in Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Axios, the Washington Post and CNN, among other outlets widely read by the lawmakers, staffers and government officials. In a tweet, Supran called the company’s donation “PR Crisis Management 101: Change the narrative”.

Over the following years Exxon continued to tout its support for carbon pricing and its membership of the CLC. In the spring of 2021, a group of Exxon shareholders asked the company to publish a report outlining how its climate lobbying efforts “align with the goal of limiting average global warming to well below” 2C. In explaining why shareholders should vote against the proposal, Exxon’s board said that such a report would be “unnecessary”–in part because the company was already a member of the CLC.

In August 2021 Exxon was “suspended” from the CLC after a company lobbyist was caught on tape saying that Exxon had pledged to support a national carbon tax because such a policy was unlikely to ever become law. “A carbon tax is not going to happen,” the lobbyist said. Supporting the concept “gives us a talking point that we can say, ‘Well, what is ExxonMobil for? Well, we’re for a carbon tax.’”

While the comments sparked a media firestorm, they were little more than a concise articulation of a strategy that Exxon and its competitors had been executing transparently for years, said Matto Mildenberger, a political science professor at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). “There has been a serious effort by some big fossil fuel interest groups to support a carbon tax because they understand that it’s much less likely to happen,” said Mildenberger, an expert in the politics of climate change. “And even if it does happen, it’s never going to be [politically] possible to increase that carbon tax to a level that would threaten the economic well being of entrenched fossil fuel interests.”

Exxon has reached the same conclusion. In 2018 the state of New York sued the oil giant, alleging that it had deceived its shareholders by asserting that the implementation of a carbon tax would not devalue the company’s fossil fuel reserves enough to threaten its business model. “Exxon was essentially saying, ‘We can have a carbon price, and it won’t strand our assets,’” said Benjamin Franta, head of the Climate Litigation Lab at Oxford’s Sustainable Law Programme.

The company’s argument, Franta said, was that even with a $40-a-ton tax on carbon–the starting point of the CLC proposal–“our fossil fuel development is so profitable that even if a carbon price is enacted, it won’t strand our projects, and therefore we’re a safe investment.” Exxon won the case.

One of the CLC’s key selling points for its plan is the organization’s own polling, which suggests bipartisan public support for “charging fossil fuel companies for their carbon emissions and giving the money back to Americans with the goal of cutting emissions”. Crucially, however, these questions are about an idea. As soon as this idea begins to shift from a “talking point”, as the Exxon lobbyist put it, into a tangible legislative proposal, it is likely to be rendered politically toxic.

Canada is among the handful of countries to have implemented some sort of carbon dividend. In Canada, UCSB’s Matto Mildenberger and his colleagues found, some four out of five Canadians receive more money from the dividend than they pay in higher taxes. Yet many people are nevertheless convinced that the policy makes them worse off. “Even telling people that they had received this money did nothing to change their support for the policy,” Mildenberger said. “Their understanding of [the] costs and benefits are mediated by politics.”

Mildenberger’s US surveys have yielded a similar conclusion. As soon as politics enters the equation – an inevitability in any American debate about climate policy – public support for a carbon dividends plan immediately plummets. “The minute you add even the slightest mention of politics into this scenario … that weakens all the effects [of support for the concept],” Mildenberger said. Once you suggest to people that Democrats and Republicans disagree over whether carbon pricing is a good idea, “people just stop trusting much of the information you’re giving them.”

To skeptics of the carbon dividends proposal, the fact that it remains trapped in the realm of the hypothetical helps explain the industry’s enthusiasm for it–and its determination to keep it there. Decades of unsuccessful attempts to implement some form of carbon pricing in the United States suggest that oil and gas companies’ rhetorical support for the idea of carbon dividends has little bearing on whether they would back an actual carbon dividends proposal.

They are playing a two-level game here

Matto Mildenberger, University of California Santa Barbara

“They are playing a two-level game here,” Mildenberger said. “On one hand, part of their strategy is to ensure that whatever policy gets written into law, or is voted on, is the lesser evil of the policies that might be voted on. And then they’re still going to try and stop even that policy from being passed because they prefer no policy.”

In the late 1980s, for instance, when scientists and environmental advocates began calling for mandatory emissions reductions, “already at that time you [saw] industry spokespeople saying, ‘We need market-based mechanisms rather than mandates,’” said Oxford’s Benjamin Franta. Seemingly in response to that preference for market-based policy, the Clinton administration moved to pass a tax on heat levels in fuel. But by June 1993 the administration was forced to abandon the effort after intensive industry lobbying. Companies and their trade groups publicly opposed the tax, while at the same time maneuvering feverishly (and successfully) to secure extensive loopholes and exemptions in the event that it did pass.

The Obama White House also encountered what Franta called the industry’s “bait and switch tactics”. The administration’s cap-and-trade proposal, which Obama repeatedly heralded as market-based, would have limited national carbon emissions and created a new market for emitters to buy and sell permits. Despite previous industry support for cap and trade and months of dealmaking with the administration and congressional negotiators, the bill ultimately died in the Senate after an onslaught of hundreds of millions of dollars of fossil fuel lobbying and campaigning.

State-level carbon pricing efforts have run into similarly vehement opposition. In 2017 BP joined the CLC as a corporate founding member and began promoting its membership on its website and in corporate reports. The following year the company spent some $13m opposing a carbon pricing measure in Washington state, even though the carbon tax in the state’s proposal would have begun at $15 a ton – less than half of the starting point of the CLC plan, which BP still claims to support. The sum that BP spent to defeat the Washington effort was thirteen times greater than what the company would later pledge to the CLC’s lobbying arm.

“Most oil and gas companies recognize the threat of climate change and want to be part of the solution,” the CLC’s founder wrote in that 2020 op-ed. Yet today these same companies are still lobbying to block climate laws and regulations. They’re still helping elect anti-climate politicians. They’re still trying to capture international climate conferences. They’re still developing business plans centered on fossil fuels. They’re still choosing not to channel their immense political power into policies that might threaten their profits.

“I don’t know what world people are living in when they think the most powerful companies in the history of mankind are going to suddenly wake up and say, ‘You know what? This oil and gas thing – I don’t know what we were thinking,’” said the Center for Climate Integrity’s Richard Wiles. “There’s just no way. Why? Why would they do that?”

From the WashPost

Extreme heat wave bound for Phoenix and Southwest could be worst ever

It’s already hot and set to get much worse. Numerous heat records are at risk next week and probably beyond.

By Ian Livingston

Updated July 7, 2023 at 1:46 p.m. EDT|Published July 7, 2023 at 12:55 p.m. EDT

The Southwest United States is about to endure a heat wave that could rank among its worst in history — both for its intensity and longevity.

The heat wave will affect much of Arizona and New Mexico and build into interior California, probably peaking during the second half of next week. The National Weather Service office in Phoenix says it will “rival some of the worst heat waves this area has ever seen.”

While it’s already excessively hot in the region, it will get significantly worse next week, and it’s unclear when the heat will ease. Computer models that project the weather 16 days into the future “do not show an end to this heat wave,” the Weather Service wrote in a discussion. “This should go down as one of the longest, if not the longest duration heat wave.”

While summer started off tame in the region (Las Vegas didn’t hit 100 until June 30, ending a record streak of not hitting the century mark), the heat began to ramp up quickly in recent days. In Phoenix, it was 115 degrees on Thursday, following 116 on the Fourth of July. The temperature in Death Valley, Calif., soared as high as 126 in the past week.

An excessive heat warning is in place through at least July 13 for much of south-central Arizona, including Phoenix and Tucson. In addition to a week or more of days with extreme heat, temperatures won’t drop too far at night, offering little relief and posing a health risk for those without access to air conditioning.

“Very dangerous to potentially life-threatening heat conditions are expected through next week and it is very essential that all the necessary heat precautions be taken to avoid any heat-related illnesses,” the Weather Service wrote.

It’s not just the heat. Unusually low humidity for July across the region is mixing with high temperatures, exacerbating a wildfire risk by drying out the land surface. Red-flag warnings for high fire danger are posted for northern Arizona and the Four Corners region out of concern for the potential of fast-moving blazes, several of which are already scorching land.

Record-crushing heat is blasting Florida, with no clear end

Where and when the heat will be worst

Tucson, Phoenix and Mesa in Arizona are among the hottest cities in the Lower 48 states, according to The Washington Post’s heat tracker, because of their triple-digit high temperatures.

In Phoenix, every day for the foreseeable future should reach at least 110 degrees.

The worst of the heat will probably occur during the second half of next week in Phoenix.

“From next Tuesday through the rest of the week, temperatures across the region may be some of the hottest we have ever seen,” the Weather Service wrote.

Phoenix has witnessed three days in history of 120 degrees or higher, with its hottest day coming in June 1990 when it hit 122 degrees. The forecast there goes as high as 117 degrees Wednesday, but the Weather Service cautioned that computer models show the possibility of 120-degree temperatures in the area.

To the north, “temperatures in Las Vegas may reach 110 degrees by the middle of the week, and 120 degrees in Death Valley,” wrote the Weather Service office in Las Vegas. And it could get hotter after that.

Temperatures of 110 to 120 degrees are also slated to be common across Southern California’s deserts into next week, along with 100 to 105 in the Central Valley. Similar levels of debilitating heat are forecast to extend eastward across the southern half of New Mexico and into adjacent parts of northern Mexico.

In the very high terrain of the Sierra Nevada, the hot weather is melting the remnants of a record-setting winter snowpack, triggering localized flooding that is expected to continue.

The heat in the region is being intensified by a delayed start to monsoon season, which runs from June 15 to Sept. 30 on average. Often, monsoons draw moisture and bring clouds and storms into the Southwest, putting a cap on temperatures by mid-July.

Where records could occur

NWS HeatRisk Prototype shows widespread major or extreme threat from heat next Thursday. (National Weather Service)

Numerous records for high temperatures and streaks of hot weather could be set over the next two weeks.

Phoenix has hit at least 110 degrees seven days in a row and could approach the record of 18 days set in June 1974.

Other numbers to watch include:

· Tucson may test calendar day record highs almost daily over the coming period, nearing 110 degrees by the middle of next week.

· Phoenix could challenge its calendar day record high Wednesday. Its high is forecast to be 117. The record of 116 degrees was set in 2020. Overnight lows near and above 90 degrees may also set records for warmest nights, especially next week.

· Death Valley is forecast to breach 120 degrees by Wednesday and head higher after that. It hit 126 degrees on July 2.

· Imperial, Calif., near the Mexico border, is forecast to reach 117 degrees by Wednesday, potentially beginning a streak of daily records there.

Records may become much more numerous by the second half of next week, when the heat is expected to peak in coverage and intensity. Record-challenging heat could threaten a sprawling region from near Los Angeles to Albuquerque by July 13.

Scientists say to brace for more extreme weather and possibly a record-warm 2023 amid unprecedented temperatures. (Video: The Washington Post)

How long

There’s no clear end in sight to this heat wave. The heat dome, set to expand and strengthen over the region, may persist beyond the limits of current forecasts.

How long this heat wave lasts may ultimately depend on whether monsoon season kicks in, but forecasters expect a near- to below-average monsoon season after a very active one last year.

The hottest time of year in Arizona is often late June into early July, highlighted in the graph below of cumulative days at or above 105 degrees in Phoenix. Deeper into July, and more noticeably by August, clouds and rain generated by monsoons tend to reduce the heat but increase humidity.

From the WashPost

Cumulative days reaching 105 or higher across Phoenix modern records. (Ian Livingston/The Washington Post)

Because of monsoon season, Phoenix typically has seen its hottest weather by mid-July. Of the 19 days on record with highs of at least 118 degrees, only four came after that. The caveat, of course, is that historical norms don’t necessarily apply in our rapidly warming climate.

Jason Samenow contributed to this report.