Hot Enough for Ya?

Hot enough for ya? At 4:00 this, Arizona was already over 90 degrees. Vegas was 117 at two in the afternoon. I know what you are saying: "Hey, we have always had heat waves." Yes, that’s true. But what we haven't had is summer nights as hot as summer days, and that is what contributes to turning normal heat waves into deadly heat waves. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than. The carbon stays in the atmosphere, acts like a warm blanket and holds in the heat. We are altering the weather. People are doing that. And unless we act now, it will only get worse.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Hot enough for ya? I wonder who will be the first weatherman to connect the dots between the record heat waves happening right now around the country and around the world with global warming. At 4:00 this morning, Arizona was already over 90 degrees. Vegas was 117 at two in the afternoon.

I know what you are saying: "Hey, we have always had heat waves." Yes, that’s true. But what we haven't had is summer nights as hot as summer days, and that is what contributes to turning normal heat waves into deadly heat waves (Two dozen deaths in Arizona have already been blamed on the heat). The human body does not have the relief of recalibrating itself. No cooling off period. Spain and Portugal are suffering the worst droughts since they began keeping records. The Swiss are desperately trying to wrap blankets around glaciers so that they will stop melting. (Good luck.) And a dead hiker from twenty years ago was just discovered because all the snow covering him has finally melted.

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than in 400,000 years. The carbon stays in the atmosphere, acts like a warm blanket and holds in the heat. We are altering the weather. People are doing that. And unless we act now, it will only get worse.

This isn't something far off in the future. This is happening now. The climate has already changed, and is poised for changes far worse. It's not just your grandchildren that will be affected. It's your children...it's grandma and grandpa...it's you.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot