U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday evening issued yet another call for a major mobilization to take on the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis in response to a new record in Phoenix, Arizona: 100 straight days of the temperature hitting at least 100°F.
“100 straight days of 100-degree heat,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media, sharing a report from The Washington Post. “The heatwave has killed at least 150 people this summer in Phoenix alone.”
“The climate emergency demands a massive-scale mobilization,” stressed the senator, a longtime advocate for a swift, just transition away from oil and gas. “There is no choice. This is a moral imperative.”
The death toll comes from the Post, which noted that in 2023, the hottest year on record globally, “heat deaths increased 50% from 2022, reaching a record of 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. This year, 150 heat deaths have been confirmed by the government and an additional 440 deaths are under investigation.”
Increasingly deadly extreme heat is a national issue. Research published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association shows that heat-related deaths in the United States rose 117% between 1999 and 2023, with the highest rates recorded in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas.
After the 100-day mark on Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Wednesday that “with the high temperature exceeding 110°F at Phoenix Sky Harbor this afternoon, the number of days of 110°F+ high temperatures for the year now ties last year’s record number of 110°F+ highs at 55 days. Expect a new record to be set tomorrow (forecasted highs of 110-115°F).”
The NWS warned Thursday that “unseasonably hot conditions are expected to persist into next week,” projecting temperatures between 108-114°F in the Arizona city through Monday.
As the Arizona Republic reported earlier this week:
Not only was this the hottest summer on record in Phoenix, but in Flagstaff, Winslow, Kingman Douglas, and Tucson too.
“For most of the state, it’s looking like the hottest summer on record,” said Sean Benedict, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “There were several locations around Arizona that set the record for the hottest summer.”
Climate Central pointed out Tuesday that the extreme heat in and around Phoenix was “made at least four to five times MORE likely to occur (yes, even in early September) due to human-caused climate change.”
As communities around the world have endured intense heat throughout 2024, scientists have warned it could break the 2023 record and become the new hottest year in human history. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month that the most recent July was just barely the second-warmest July globally—ending a streak that lasted from June 2023 to June 2024, during which each month was the hottest on record.
“Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record,” C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said at the time. “July 2024 saw the two hottest days on record. The overall context hasn’t changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero.”
Although C3S has not yet released its official findings for last month, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday that the agency’s preliminary data show that “August 2024 should be on a par with last year’s record 16.82°C (62.28°F).”
The C3S findings slightly conflict with those of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found that the latest July “was Earth’s warmest July on record, extending the streak of record-high monthly global temperatures to 14 successive months.” NOAA also hasn’t yet released its data for August.
What climate experts agree on is that much more must be done to address the crisis created by fossil fuels. As World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in response to this summer’s findings: “Climate adaptation alone is not enough. We need to tackle the root cause and get serious about reducing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions.”
In addition to transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy, some have called for going after corporate giants that continue to rake in record profits from their planet-wrecking products. In June, Public Citizen unveiled a legal memo detailing how local or state prosecutors could bring criminal charges against Big Oil for deaths from extreme heat—using Arizona as an example.
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