‘In July, the Earth experienced the eleven warmest days of the past hundred thousand years’: this is the analysis of a climatologist

Photos of people cooling off in springs, fanning themselves with fans and walking with umbrellas have gone viral in recent days, evidence of the scorching heat wave being experienced in several parts of the world. Temperatures have reached 40 and 50 degrees Celsius in parts of Europe, North America and China.

“Earth has experienced the eleven hottest days of the past hundred thousand years‘ the scientist revealed Jennifer Ann Francisclimatologist of the Woodwell Research Centerin an interview with Radio City (89.3FM). “This is an amazing situation, even people like me who study the climate system are very concerned and alarmed by these events,” Francis noted.

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It is not surprising that high temperatures are currently being recorded in the northern hemisphere of the planet, as July is usually the hottest month of the year. But current temperatures break all records recorded by scientists.

The climatologist explained it in one sentence: “The world is suffering from the consequences of the climate crisis”. And the blame for climate change lies with humans.

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“Our activities as humans on this planet are entirely responsible for these new record temperatures that we are experiencing, as well as the push for different types of extreme weather,” he said.

According to Francis, extreme weather is also not due to natural phenomena because if that were true the earth would be in a cooling cycle and not a warming cycle.

According to scientists, the main reason for the climate change that is causing the extreme heat this month is the greenhouse gases Through combustion of fossil fuels.

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“The heat-trapping greenhouse gases we’ve been emitting into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuels, such as carbon and methane,” are responsible for the high temperatures, Francis said.

There are several ways to combat extreme temperatures, says the climatologist. One could be to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Only in the United States The government allocates $600,000 million annually to this industry. Worldwide, this figure rises to three million dollars.

The other way is to stop cutting down trees, because that’s how the planet removes greenhouse gases, such as carbon, from the atmosphere.

“When we cut down trees, not only do we remove this mechanism of taking carbon out of the air, but the trees themselves also contain a lot of carbon, and when they burn or rot, that carbon goes back into the air,” Francis said.