‘The Earth has had hot summers for eons with cyclical periods of warming and cooling’
Another scorching July week and another dire media warning that my car, your lawnmower and Aunt Jenna’s stove are heating up the Earth.
Something drastic needs to be done.
It’s been hotter than usual, and for longer, especially on the West Coast. The Los Angeles Times calls it “unprecedented.” Not to minimize the human cost of the extended heat waves, but this is not a unique time.
During the 1930s, many states recorded high temperature records that still stand.
As an aside, when I was a kid growing up in New Jersey decades ago, I did what some other children in my neighborhood tried to do; fry an egg on the sidewalk.
It was when temperatures were near 90, and my friends and I figured that a frying pan would be at least as hot as we felt. All we got was sticky goo. One kid decided that his father’s car hood would work better. As I recall, his backside was the only thing that reached frying temperature after his dad found out.
Anyway, I thought about those days as report after report claimed that we were experiencing something unique during our recent heat waves.
The stories often blame humans and call for curbing carbon dioxide and methane emissions by getting rid of fossil fuels. It’s part of the red/green axis, about which there is more below.
For some perspective, not one state in June reported a record high temperature.
In fact, only three states have set record highs in the 21st century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):