The
southern U.S. has been suffering under an intense heat dome in
recent weeks. In China, an enduring heatwave continued, with
temperatures above 35C (95F). North Africa has seen temperatures
near 50C (122F).
And even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered
anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base
in the white continent's Argentine Islands recently broke its
July temperature record with 8.7C (47.6F).
"This is not a milestone we should be celebrating," said climate
scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate
Change and the Environment at Britain's Imperial College London.
"It's a death sentence for people and ecosystems."
Scientists said climate change, combined with an emerging El
Nino pattern, were to blame.
"Unfortunately, it promises to only be the first in a series of
new records set this year as increasing emissions of [carbon
dioxide] and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Nino
event push temperatures to new highs," said Zeke Hausfather, a
research scientist at Berkeley Earth, in a statement.
(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Mark Potter)
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