CLIMATE NEWS
Earth's hottest month on record was July 2016: NASA
Earth just had its hottest month yet, and the record-shattering warmth shows no signs of stopping.
According to NASA, global average surface temperatures during July were 0.84 degrees Celsius, or 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit, above average. This beats all previous Julys, with July 2011 coming in second at 0.74 degrees Celsius above average.
The large anomaly seen during July 2016 means that the month was the hottest on Earth since instrumental records began in 1880.
Separately, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), also found that July was the planet's hottest month ever recorded.
July is typically the planet's hottest month of the year due to the fact that the Northern Hemisphere has more land area than the Southern Hemisphere, making Northern Hemisphere summer the warmest month.
July is now the tenth month in a row to be the warmest such month on record in NASA's database.
Climate Zones Everywhere are on the March Poleward
Big climate-zone movements risk an amazing range of ecological and geophysical damage. A short and incomplete list includes melting glaciers, shrinking sea ice, rising sea levels, stratifying and increasingly anoxic oceans, mass coral bleaching, and habitat loss for species on a global scale.
Staggering 66 million dead trees in California
In many drought-ravaged areas, there’s not been sufficient water for tree roots to siphon. Weakened needle-covered trees are unable to secrete the sticky resin required to fight off bark beetle infestations. Mild winters also don’t kill off as many of the bugs, which burrow beneath bark and into the tree’s soft innards on which their larvae feed.
Carbon Sinks in Crisis
Rainforests are now being hit so hard by a combination of drought and fire that the forest is starting to bleed carbon back. This gigantic and ancient repository of atmospheric carbon appears to have turned into a carbon source.
