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July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), causing more concern for those anxious about climate change.
The combined land- and ocean-surface temperature around the world was 1.67 degrees Fahrenheit above the average of 60.4 degrees, according to NOAA — making July the hottest month on Earth since record-keeping started 142 years ago.
“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said.
“July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded,” he continued, adding, "this new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”
The combined temperature last month was 0.02 of a degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous record logged in July 2016, which was then tied in 2019 and 2020.
In the Northern Hemisphere, NOAA said that the land-surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for July, at an unprecedented 2.77 degrees Fahrenheit above average, surpassing the previous record set in 2012.
Officials also noted that Asia had its hottest July on record, besting the previous record set in 2010; Europe had its second-hottest July on record-tying with July 2010 and trailing behind July 2018; and North America, South America, Africa, and Oceania all had a top-10 warmest July.
“Scientists from across the globe delivered the most up-to-date assessment of the ways in which the climate is changing,” Spinrad said. "It is a sobering (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report that finds that human influence is, unequivocally, causing climate change, and it confirms the impacts are widespread and rapidly intensifying.”
Spinrad said that “inaction to mitigate climate change is making it worse,” and that it should be a top priority of President Joe Biden’s administration to address.
“The impacts of climate change are being felt in every U.S. state, territory, community and sector,” he said. “People are in harm’s way, infrastructure is increasingly outdated and in many places not designed for the new environmental realities, and extreme weather events continue to occur one after another.
“We have a narrow window of time to avoid very costly, deadly, and irreversible future climate impacts,” Spinrad added. “It is the consensus of the world’s scientists that we need strong, and sustained reduction in greenhouse gases.”
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