‘We’re loading the dice’: Scientists say record heat is due to climate change

July 2023: Earth’s Hottest Month on Record

July was officially the Earth’s hottest month on record. Scientists say this summer’s record-breaking heat is due in large part to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels and other human activities.

Scientists have known for over a century that carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. And by burning coal, natural gas, and oil, we are pumping more of this insulation into our atmosphere.

Add in this year’s El Nino, a Pacific Ocean warming event that can lead to warmer global temps, and you’ve got a recipe for blistering heat in places like the Southwest U.S., Asia, and Europe, says Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State.

“Getting what we’re seeing without the human influence would have been almost impossible at this point,” said Alley. “And with the human influence, it’s expected.”

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The Impact of Climate Change

July 6 was officially the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. Countries around the world have experienced 120-degree Fahrenheit heat. The average temperature in Phoenix was 102.7 degrees in July, a record. It topped 100 degrees in Canada’s Northwest Territories, just below the Arctic Circle.

Alley said weather extremes like heat waves have always happened, but with climate change, the odds of these extremes happening are greater. He used the analogy of weighting a set of dice.

“We’ve had weird weather. It happens,” he said. “But we’re weighting the dice. We’re making it more and more and more likely that they come up hot, and they are.”

A recent study found heat waves in China, Europe and North America were much more likely because of human-caused climate change.

The Earth’s temperature has gone up by around 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 18th century, and is on pace to increase another three to four degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, says Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The main reason is human fossil fuel consumption.

“Contributing to many or all of these heat events and other climate extremes is increases in greenhouse gases because of the burning of fossil fuels,” Cook said. “So it’s all really anthropogenic. All of the warming we’re seeing is driven by human activities.”

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Impact on Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is expected to have 37 days of 90-degree temperatures in a year by mid-century, up from an average of 5. Southwestern Pennsylvania will see more extremely hot days than anywhere else in the state, according to a state climate assessment.

Scientists say the best way to slow and eventually stop global warming is by reducing or eliminating fossil fuel use. Governments have pledged to do that under the UN’s Paris Agreement; the Biden Administration has pledged to cut US carbon pollution in half by 2030.

Last year, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate commitment in US history. That legislation allocates billions of dollars to $370 billion over 10 years on renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy (indirectly connected)

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
• SDG 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning.
• SDG 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.
• SDG 13.5: Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Indicator: Increase in the number of extremely hot days in Pennsylvania (mentioned in the article).
• Indicator: Reduction in carbon pollution in the US by 2030 (mentioned in the article).
• Indicator: Allocation of funds for renewable energy and low-carbon technologies (mentioned in the article).

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: alleghenyfront.org

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