This July, residents of the planet Earth experienced the hottest July of at least the last 120,000 years, according to a new analysis. But unless fossil fuel use is curtailed, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the UN’s World Meteorological Organization warned, this sort of brutal summer — in which heatwaves in Europe fuel “blowtorch”-like wildfires, will become common. What is currently, “unprecedented,” like water temperatures off of Florida above 100°F, (ideal for hot tubs but not coral reefs bleaching in the heat) will perhaps be looked at fondly as a time when media stories about climate impacts on vacations were still pleasant diversions, and not punctuated by warnings about how U.S. National Parks are “like an oven.” While announcing that this summer has been the hottest since the age of homo erectus, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared, “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” (Hottest month: AP, Axios, CBS, Scientific American, Scientific American, The Times, The Independent, Grist, Carbon Brief, Politico Pro $; U.S. heat: Reuters, AP; National parks and vacations: The Guardian, CBS, The Independent; European heat: The Guardian; Ocean heat: CNN, Washington Post $, AP, The Independent, New York Times $, AP, The Guardian, AP; Mediterranean fires, “like a blowtorch”: The Guardian, Reuters, BBC; Other wildfires: Reuters, Forbes, Reuters; “Global boiling”: Washington Post $)
