Wednesday managed to top it by getting to 17.18C with the reading remaining at that level on Thursday. NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick said that, taking other data into account, it’s likely the hottest day in “several hundred years that we’ve experienced”.
With temperatures set to get warmer in the north over summer, no one would bet against further highs.
“Unfortunately, it promises to only be the first in a series of new records set this year as increasing emissions of [carbon dioxide] and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Nino event push temperatures to new highs,” said research scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Berkeley Earth climate data analysis centre.
Climate scientist Friederike Otto of Imperial College London said: “It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”
It follows the warmest June on record as the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, for the first time in seven years, is combining with ongoing emissions to increase temperatures.
Some areas in the north, not used to the marine heatwaves New Zealand has been experiencing, are now noticing them - including in seas around Britain and Ireland
The storms here earlier this year caused about $3 billion in insurance claims and required $1b in government support. Antarctica has broken its temperature record for July at 8.7C. Canadian wildfires sent hazy skies to New York. Australia will be particularly anxious about its bushfire season later this year.
The world’s population is already familiar with feeling and seeing the environmental impacts of warming. We’re also trapped in a cycle of receiving doom-laden data about what’s happening while action about dealing with it seems slow.
Britain, which the Met Office says has just recorded its hottest June since 1884, is reportedly considering dropping an £11.6 billion (NZ$23.8b) climate funds pledge for developing countries while expanding powers to target some climate protests.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fossil fuel consumption in many developed countries had been in slight decline. Last year fossil fuels still accounted for 82 per cent of the world’s total energy consumption.
The head of Shell, Wael Sawan, used the insufficient pace of transition from fossil to renewable fuels to argue that the world still “desperately needs oil and gas” and cutting production would be “dangerous and irresponsible”.
Charities Oxfam and ActionAid have calculated that the biggest companies in the world, including energy firms, have been making US$1 trillion annually in windfall profits from high energy prices and interest rates. Maybe windfalls should be powering more wind farms.
A lot of development work is going into the goal of better batteries for EVs and carbon capture is a fringe hope. At least there’s been a surge in sales of EVs among vehicle buyers in New Zealand and Australia - a trend that should only grow.
The International Energy Agency expects global investment in clean energy to be US$1.7 trillion this year, an increase of 24 per cent since 2021. Agency head Fatih Birol said, “if governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal from now”.
Climate experts say we have until about 2030 to make significant progress. Surely a Marshall Plan for the planet is needed now to quicken the pace of energy change.
