All-time temperature records toppled this week. Hurricane forecasts are becoming more dire. And the acrid smell of Canadian wildfire smoke has barely left the nostrils of people in D.C. So you may be ready for some good climate news: For the first time since Joe Biden became president, the United States’ planet-warming carbon emissions have dropped this year. That’s not saving anyone from the record-breaking heat gripping the planet, though. And some analysts say the decline in climate pollution probably has more to do with milder winters — which triggered a decline in home heating — than Biden’s carbon-cutting policies, writes Benjamin Storrow. Even the good news has a downside Steep declines in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and Europe were offset by rising production in China and India, leading to a flatlining of global atmospheric pollution through the first five months of 2023. That trend, identified by the academic emissions tracker Carbon Monitor, conforms to experts’ prediction that the world is entering a period of plateauing emissions — not the sharp declines needed to stave off disaster. The problem is that even as wind, solar and other clean energy production rises, it’s being offset by increasing energy consumption across the world. Because carbon pollution builds up and lingers in the atmosphere, fluctuations in yearly emissions are so far bearing very little on recent weather trends. And those trends are alarming even the most seasoned climate scientists. Hear that? It’s global heat records shattering. On Monday, the planet experienced its hottest day in at least 125,000 years, The Washington Post reported based on an analysis of federal data. Then came Tuesday, which was even hotter. Thursday spiked up again, for a new peak just over 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Forecasters recently predicted that the world is entering a five-year period of soaring temperatures driven by continued emissions of heat-trapping pollution and the return of the naturally occurring El Niño climate pattern. The combination so far has been striking. June was the warmest ever recorded, with heat waves spreading across the south and southwestern U.S., Mexico and beyond. Oceans have warmed to new levels, Antarctica is experiencing a record drop in sea ice, and surface temperatures have climbed by a strikingly wide margin. Not to mention, humans have used so much groundwater that it’s shifting Earth’s tilt, which can’t be a good thing.
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