Last week was a pretty bad week for our beloved Planet Earth.
Record high temperatures have been set around the world in an unusually long and widespread heatwave.
Before this, the highest temperature on record was set in 2016 for being the warmest year to date. It was helped by the natural climate cycle known as El Niño.
2017 saw the highest temperature records, without the amplifying phenomenon and now, 2018 has taken us to new heights of temperature, despite being in the cooling end of the cycle.
According to experts, this heatwave is unusual not just for how hot it is but for how widespread the heat is.
The temperature is causing all kinds of strange and terrible phenomena around the world.
For instance, Russia is experiencing wildfires that affected forests near the Krasnoyarsk region, 54 people have died in the Quebec of Canada, and there have been droughts, wildfires and loss of crops reported all over Europe.
In a word, it’s not looking good for our planet or us.
Scientists expressed concern that climate change is blocking weather fronts more often. This means that droughts or storms tend to last longer and this increases the amount of damage they can do.
The recent flooding in Japan is the perfect example of this phenomenon in action. Around 150 people lost their lives to that disaster.
Abnormal weather has been a problem around the world in the past year from the drought in Cape Town to Hurricane Harvey and Irma that struck the east coast of the US, along with the Carribean.
Despite the mounting evidence, denial of man-made climate change is still very much in effect in different parts of the world.
Here’s hoping we can all band together and do something to prevent the climate from getting worse before our little blue planet decides that it’s better off without us.
The movie 2012 is supposed to be a blockbuster film, not a forecast of things to come.
Header Image Source: Chahicha
