Thousands of heat-related deaths ... raging wildfires ... extreme heat ...
A scientist explains what's going on.
A scientist explains what's going on.
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00:00This is what we've been talking about when we've been projecting climate change and what
00:08its impacts are going to look like.
00:21We're not prepared for the future as it's going to get even more intense because of
00:26global warming.
00:27We have people who are dying at home.
00:29We have outdoor workers who are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat and are dying on the
00:34job in this day and age.
00:58What we're seeing in Europe is really astounding.
01:00We're seeing conditions in places like London hitting 40 degrees Celsius for the first time.
01:06This heat is co-occurring with really dry conditions and so that has led to a lot of
01:12wildfires in Europe.
01:14We've seen the same thing happening in the southwestern United States, for example, and
01:20that can create obviously damage and tragic loss for the communities in those areas.
01:26It also creates poor air quality for areas that are kind of downwind of those fires.
01:44Today in Central Texas, it got up to 108 degrees.
01:47I have this pit sitting right in the sunlight.
01:50It's at about 225 degrees.
01:51And if you look close enough, that sucker is just barely smoking.
01:59Certainly climate change is one of the contributing factors.
02:02Global warming is caused by the combustion of fossil fuels.
02:06In terms of the specifics, in Europe, there's a heat dome that's a result of a high pressure
02:12system that's kind of transporting hot air from Africa up into Europe and that air is
02:18just kind of sitting on top of the European continent right now.
02:23In the United States, we're seeing a big heat dome also sitting over places like Texas,
02:29the southwestern United States.
02:32We also are seeing extreme heat in China right now too.
02:35It's really remarkable how so many places across the world are experiencing record-breaking
02:41heat at the same time.
02:48You have this kind of heat over major populations, you get a big draw on that electric demand.
02:57It looks like we may have just switched over to generator power.
03:00Our lights just went out.
03:01Extreme heat is really one of the, I think, clearest signs that we're seeing of climate
03:07change and one of the ones that's just going to manifest really dramatically as the earth
03:16continues to warm.
03:18We did a study in the United States.
03:20We found, for example, in Miami, the heat index, or again, feels-like temperature, there
03:24have been historically 41 days in which the feels-like temperature has been 100 degrees
03:31Fahrenheit or above.
03:33We found at mid-century, without action on climate change, that number would grow to
03:37134 days with those kinds of conditions.
03:46When you especially focus on the fact that we are not enacting the measures needed to
04:01reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly and meet the Paris Agreement temperature targets,
04:06we're nowhere near on track to any of those temperature goals.
04:09Part of what gives me hope is that the technologies that we need to solve the climate crisis,
04:15we do have in hand.
04:17It's not about coming up with something that we don't have or we don't know how to do.
04:22Now it's about getting the political will.
04:25Unfortunately, that's where we're really stalled.
04:29I think the elephant in the room that's really important to address is the role of the fossil
04:33fuel industry.
04:35They have, since the mid-1960s, been engaging in intentional campaigns to create confusion,
04:43to create disinformation about climate change and climate science, to thwart action on the
04:49issue, and to make sure that society is hooked on their products.
04:52I think they are in the pockets of a lot of politicians, and until we separate that out
04:59and have politicians really doing what's in the best interest, truly, of their constituents,
05:05and in light of what evidence and science says, we're going to keep having this problem.