Iran broke the record for Asia’s highest temperature ever recorded during June yesterday. It was a scorching 128.7F in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, which works out to 53.7C. The previous June record in Iran was 53C (127.4F).
(AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File)
And if that wasn’t enough, the heat index, which factors in humidity, hit a whopping 61.1C (142F). Amazingly, if you only measured by heat index, the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr actually felt hotter than Ahvaz yesterday, hitting 73.9C (165F), while maintaining a lower actual temperature of 46.1C (115F).
As USA Today notes, the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was back in 1913 when Death Valley, California hit 56.7C (134F). Last year, 2016, was the hottest year on record for our planet. Meanwhile, the Trump regime is eliminating 1200 jobs at the EPA, and the US president himself has called climate change a “hoax” invented by the Chinese.
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
Weather is not climate, but blistering heat is one of the predictable outcomes of humanity’s contribution to global climate change. So while politicians brings snow into the US House to “prove” climate change is a hoax, maybe we can ship these guys off to Iran in the summer.
You know who is taking climate change seriously? The US military. In a video released this week, the US Navy emphasised to former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that climate change poses a threat to national security.
“Governor, [Naval Station Norfolk] is the second most vulnerable area, next to New Orleans, in terms of the sea level rise,” Rear Admiral Jack Scorby told Schwarzenegger in Virginia, according to Task and Purpose. “Right now, our best estimate is approximately a two-foot [60cm] rise by the year 2050.”
The video emphasises that at least 18 US Navy bases are at serious risk for flooding. As Schwarzenegger emphasises, we’re not talking about “50 years from now, but today”.
Climate change is happening, whether you believe in it or not. In Iran, in the United States, and in Australia.
[Washington Post and USA Today and Task and Purpose]