July, 2019 was officially the hottest month ever recorded by humans, according to scientists at both the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a program of the European Union, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It narrowly edged out the previous record month of July, 2016.
This is concerning, as the July, 2016 temperatures occurred at the peak of a strong, cyclical El Niño event that accentuated global temperature. This year’s record occurred in the absence of such a strong El Niño.
June, 2019 was also the hottest June in the 140-year record, according to the NOAA.
Some selected events that have attended our record hot summer:
A weather station North of the Arctic Circle recorded a whopping 94.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and millions of acres in the Arctic — from Siberia to Greenland to Alaska — were consumed by an unprecedented extent of Arctic wildfire. People reported difficulty breathing in a number of Siberian cities that were blanketed in smoke. The most concerning of the fires, which emitted more carbon dioxide in June than Sweden does for an entire year, were peat fires resulting from drier than usual conditions in these usually water-logged areas. These are concerning because, unlike typical wildfires that burn presently growing trees (which is bad enough), peat fires burn in soil containing fossilized trees. If a growing tree burns, its carbon can be taken back out of the atmosphere, at least in theory, by growing a new tree to replace it. Not so with peat, the concentrated and fossilized remains of millions of years worth of vegetative carbon. And peat fires can smolder for months, years, or decades. Arctic peat fires represent a vicious possible feedback loop, holding the potential to return to the atmosphere fossil carbon much as human fossil fuel emissions do, but in a manner we don’t benefit from and can’t control. This could lead to yet warmer and drier conditions in the Arctic, favoring more peat fires, and so on. In Arctic peat fires lies the potential for a tipping point, a positive feedback that could reinforce our Earth’s transition to a warmer climate, independent of human control. If you’ve read Episode 9 of my Brief History of Climate Change, such a tipping point might be capable of putting human civilization on a trajectory of “Collapse With Resource Change,” even if we start doing everything right with respect to our own emissions. To what extent an extended range of peat fires can be tolerated without triggering such a tipping point is uncertain.
“These are some of the biggest fires on the planet, with a few appearing to be larger than 100,000 hectares [380 square miles] … The amount of CO2 emitted from Arctic Circle fires in June 2019 is larger than all the CO2 released from the Arctic Circle in the same month from 2010 through to 2018 put together.”
–Thomas Smith, Assistant Professor of Environmental Geography, London School of Economics
Europe was gripped by twin, record-shattering heat waves during June and July. The following all-time heat records and events occurred:
- France: more than 50 cities exceeded their previous record highs, including Vérargues with a temperature of 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit on June 28. Ten deaths were reported in June and July as a direct result of the heat wave. Two nuclear reactors were shut down, and 6 others were operated at reduced power, because the rivers they use for cooling water were too warm.
- Belgium: 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit, town of Angleur, July 24. Passengers on a broken down Eurostar train were evacuated as many became ill. At least one person died.
- Finland: 92.7 degrees Fahrenheit, Porvoo, July 28.
- Germany: 108.7 degrees Fahrenheit, Linen, Lower Saxony, July 25.
- Luxembourg: 105.4 degrees Fahrenheit, Steinsel, July 25. Several fires broke out and a fire truck exploded.
- Netherlands: 105.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Gilze-Rijen, July 25. Train delays occurred as some trains had to be taken out of service. Thousands of chickens and pigs died in transit or due to ventilation failures. 400 extra people died compared with a typical summer week.
- Norway: 95 degrees Fahrenheit, Mosjøen Airport, July 27.
- United Kingdom: 100.6 degrees Fahrenheit, Cambridge, July 25. Widespread train delays occurred in July due to high track temperatures and damage to overhead lines. Rail tracks were painted white to prevent buckling.
Disconcertingly, new scientific research published in July in Geophysical Research Letters indicates Europe is warming more quickly than predicted by the European climate models on which, for example, the IPCC reports are based.
“Heatwaves are a silent killer; while for many people a heatwave just means a few hot days in the office, or even a nice day at the beach, heat is literally life-threatening to vulnerable groups like the elderly and chronically ill … Contrary to, for instance, storms and floods, these casualties usually do not even make the news. We only see them later in the statistics … no death certificate says ‘heat wave’ as the cause of death, even if the heat is actually a key factor in mortality.”
–Maarten van Aalst, Director of Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Sea ice extent in the Arctic ocean reached the lowest July value ever recorded, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. Sea ice surrounding Alaska disappeared 6-8 weeks earlier than usual, and there was no sea ice within 125 miles of the state’s shores. Partly due to the warm water, Alaska set a new record monthly high mean temperature in July nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous record set in July, 2004. Another potential source of positive feedbacks to our Earth’s climate, melting sea ice exposes dark water, which absorbs solar radiation rather than reflecting it like ice does.
“It looks like the worst case scenario put forward by the IPCC could be an underestimate because we are seeing ice melting now that we expected 30 to 40 years from now. It’s alarming because it’s very fast-paced and the consequences are hard to predict.”
–Marco Tedesco, climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Fires in Brazil’s Amazon forest burned in August at a record rate, according to the Brazil National Institute for Space Research, which began tracking the fires in 2013. There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, 80% more than last year.
The Amazon forest produces 20% of the oxygen in our Earth’s atmosphere, and additionally provides a substantial carbon sink for the planet. (The atmospheric oxygen content we are used to is a result of our Earth’s bacterial and plant activity; before the Great Oxidation Event about 2 billion years ago, there was no oxygen.)
Every minute of every day, more than 1.5 soccer fields worth of the Amazon rain forest were being destroyed by fire. Many of these fires were set purposefully, to provide pasture for cattle.
The Amazon rain forest creates its own weather; transpiration from the plants’ leaves creates the rain. It also creates a vast, atmospheric river of water vapor that carries moisture as far as the American Midwest. Beyond a certain point, deforestation of the Amazon could cause it to lose its ability to create the weather necessary to preserve its current state. It could revert to a dry savanna with vastly less carbon sequestration ability. A 2018 study published in the journal Science Advances estimated that a tipping point to eventual savannah could be reached at 20-25% deforestation.
About 17% of the Brazilian Amazon is currently deforested, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
This is yet another potential positive feedback to the climate crisis we need to be aware of.
“We worry that we will soon cross a threshold of forest loss, a point of no return, after which the water recycling pump will be insufficient to maintain the system and we will see forest collapse independent of further human depredations.”
–Scott Saleska, a University of Arizona professor who first began studying the Amazon more than 20 years ago
A July 22 report by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative found that, across 5,301 government web pages, ranging from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Geological Survey, the terms “climate change,” “clean energy,” and “adaptation” have dropped 26% under the Trump administration.
(Fortunately, third party organizations have cloned many of the original sites — look for them. Also look for NASA Climate, which has managed to remain remarkably excellent.)
This reflects our brilliant federal government strategy with respect to the climate: if we don’t talk about it, it will just go away. Right?
Right.
