100M Americans Set to Face Potentially Historic Heat Wave
100M Americans Set to Face Potentially Historic Heat Wave
The Facts
According to the US National Weather Service (NWS), over 100M Americans across the Midwest, Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic will face "record-breaking" heat this week.
Northeastern states like Vermont, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania will face temperatures 20-25 degrees above normal for the month of June. Extreme heat warnings for temperatures above 90°F have already been issued from the Great Lakes to NYC and Boston.
The Spin
Burning fossil fuels has led to annual record-breaking heat for several years, and what's most troubling is that heat-related deaths are rising as well. Everywhere Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to avoid these lethal heat waves. Searing heat is a hazard that scientists most definitively tie to human-caused climate change. This catastropheclimate emergency can only be stopped if human behavior changes.
The media keeps sensationalizing natural disaster stories so people think the world is on fire. What they don't include is that natural disaster deaths have actually dropped by 92% since their peak in the 1920s. Thanks to human ingenuity, carbon emissions are also predicted to decline in both rich and poor countries in the coming decade, protecting people from severe weather. This is vital missing context from the climate debate.