Locals use water hoses to extinguish a burning trees in Koycegiz district of Mugla on August 3, 2021. – Turkey’s struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades come as a blistering heatwave grips southeastern Europe creating tinderbox conditions that Greek officials blame squarely on climate change. The fires tearing through Turkey since July 28 have destroyed huge swathes of pristine forest and forced the evacuation of panicked tourists from seaside hotels. | Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
July 2021 was officially the hottest month humans have ever recorded. This July narrowly beat out three previous months in 2016, 2019, and 2020 that had tied for the previous title. The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change.
“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said in a statement. NOAA confirmed the new temperature record today, which Spinrad said, “adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”
(2 of 5) #July 2021 global surface temp was 1.67°F (0.93°C) above avg — making…
