Climate change is making heat waves hotter, longer and more deadly — and this summer proves it. The fossil fuel industry spent decades lying about the science while locking society into heat-trapping emissions, and now 136 million Americans are sweltering under dangerous heat indexes topping 115 degrees. Extreme heat is already the top weather-related killer in the U.S., and without serious action, this brutal summer could be the coolest one left.
Record high temperatures across the U.S. are nothing new — 36 of 50 state heat records were set more than five decades ago, and 23 were set in the 1930s when CO2 emissions were a fraction of today's levels. Global average temperature records spanning 150 years represent a tiny sliver of Earth's 4.5-billion-year history, making alarm over "unprecedented" heat deeply misleading. Natural factors dominate Earth's climate, and adaptation is the only rational response.
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