'The New Normal': Extreme Heat Imperils Millions Across Northern Hemisphere

Millions of people and ecosystems across the Northern Hemisphere continued to suffer Monday amid ongoing heatwaves exacerbated by the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.

The "intolerable" conditions, some of which are detailed below, have reignited demands for far-reaching climate action. Meanwhile, many countries—including the wealthy ones most responsible for the greenhouse gas pollution causing increasingly common and severe extreme weather—are still permitting the increased production of planet-heating fossil fuels, ignoring the international scientific consensus and endangering societies and biodiversity around the globe.

Climate scientists said that last month was the hottest June since scientists began record-keeping in the 1880s. With its blistering start, this July is on track to shatter the monthly record set just years ago. The recent arrival of El Niño conditions is projected to make an already dangerous situation even worse, with the WMO warning earlier this month of "a likely surge in global temperatures and disruptive weather and climate patterns."

"In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted Monday. "The climate crisis is not a warning. It's happening. I urge world leaders to act now."

"The struggle to avert systemic failure is the struggle between democracy and plutocracy. It always has been, but the stakes are now higher than ever."

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry arrived in Beijing on Monday for a series of talks with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua about four months ahead of the start of the United Nations' COP28 conference. The two diplomats—from the world's largest historic emitter of heat-trapping gases and its biggest current polluter, respectively—aim to discuss how their countries can jointly slash methane emissions and coal-fired power.

"In the next three days," Kerry said, "we hope we can begin taking some big steps that will send a signal to the world about the serious purpose of China and the United States to address a common risk, threat, challenge to all of humanity created by humans themselves."

But not all humans have played an equal role in creating or perpetuating the climate emergency.

Since raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in 2022, oil and gas giants—which knowingly suppressed warnings about the climate crisis for decades—have reneged on their emission reduction targets and made clear they intend to expand drilling operations in the coming years. Policymakers have shown little willingness to stop them, as COP27 ended with no commitment to phase out fossil fuels.

On Saturday, The Guardian columnist George Monbiot alluded to overlooked new research sounding the alarm about the growing risk of simultaneous crop losses in the world's major growing regions due to climate breakdown and argued forcefully that "the struggle to avert systemic failure is the struggle between democracy and plutocracy."

"It always has been," he added, "but the stakes are now higher than ever."

On Monday, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas similarly stressed that "extreme weather—an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate—is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy, and water supplies."

"This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible," said Taalas. "In addition, we have to step up efforts to help society adapt to what is unfortunately becoming the new normal."