The Hottest Global Average Temperature Day🥵
It was more than fireworks heating up the sky during the 2023 Independence Day celebrations.
July 3rd was the hottest day recorded as a global average of temperatures taken at hundreds of sites worldwide. The worldwide average for that day was 62.62 degrees Fahrenheit.
The record stood one day until July 4th, which was even hotter at 62.92 degrees.
The climate crisis is here; we need leaders ready to face it head-on. Chip in now before our end-of-month deadline and help elect more climate champions.
To understand the current climate crisis, it's essential to look back at history. In 1896, a scientist named Svante Arrhenius (Greta Thunberg's great, great grandparent's second cousin) predicted that an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to a 0.2-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. He was not alarmed because he understood that it would require people to alter the hydrological cycle for this to happen. Something he thought impossible given the immensity of global systems.
However, other researchers, like George Perkins Marsh, recognized early on how human activities, particularly agriculture, had been disrupting the natural water cycles for thousands of years. Green landscapes died because of people clearing, burning, furrowing, fertilizing, irrigating, and generally messing with nature. Marsh documented the aridification and spread of deserts from Morocco across the Sahara, the Middle East across the Steppes to Mongolia. Our agricultural practices killed soils and stopped plant-driven local water cycles. During the Dust Bowl, Franklin D Roosevelt summed it up, saying, "A nation without soil cannot survive."
To restore the planet's balance, we need to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to about 350 parts per million (ppm). Currently, it has risen to around 420 ppm. Achieving this goal requires not only reaching net-zero emissions but also drawing down an additional 100 billion tons of carbon.
At Global Warming Solutions, our mission is to help elect climate champions who will prioritize reducing carbon emissions and other climate mitigation strategies. Chip in now before our end-of-month goal and help support this important work!
Soil is alive, and dirt is not. More microbes are found in one cubic meter of soil than people living on Earth. Until recently, we only concerned ourselves with the top six inches. Meanwhile, plant roots were reaching down eight feet or more. As a result, we know more about the ocean, which is only a little of all there is to know, than we do about the rhizosphere, the realm of soil.
Soil is living like flesh. Cut it with a shovel to sever the fungal networks binding the soil together. The transport of carbohydrates from plants is disrupted, as is the flow of nutrients and minerals prepared by bacteria to plants. The opened soil bleeds greenhouse gasses out into the air.
Most plants use two-thirds of the carbon they produce for their growth, while one-third is released into the soil through their roots. Prairie grasses, salt marsh, sea grasses, and even lawn grasses (when not fertilized) are the soil carbon champions. An established lawn (not disrupted by frequent fertilizing) in the best weather can build an inch of soil in a year. With four inches of soil, the lawn can swell to hold seven inches of rainwater. The more water in the soil, the more plants will grow, and the more carbon dioxide is drawn out of the air.
On hot days, plants release water vapor through small openings called stomata, which cool the area around them. This is why standing beneath a leafy tree on a hot day is cooler than standing in the shade of an awning. Conversely, at the coldest time of day, before dawn, plants actively release water that condenses and forms dew to warm the area.
When land is covered by plants, it reflects about 20% of the sun's heat energy, helping to cool the planet. In contrast, bare dirt or asphalt surfaces reradiate about 60% of the energy, contributing to warming.
Each of us can make a difference by stewarding the growth of plants. We may cover cement patios and steps with potted plants and raised beds on hard surfaces. Turning a hardscape to green decreases reradiated heat by three times.
With incremental increases in more plants, especially grasses, healthier soils, and restored local water cycles, we will live more comfortably while restoring the climate without unwanted July 4th climate fireworks.
More soon,
Rob