To say that it was "shorts weather" in Rajasthan, India, yesterday would be ... a bit of an understatement.
That's 51 degrees Celsius. Which is 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is not only the hottest temperature ever recorded in that country — it's not all that far off from the safe internal temperature for a cooked chicken.
That's ... more than a little alarming.
OK, but just because it was super hot in one place at one time doesn't prove that global warming is a thing.
A man splashes cold water on himself in Kolkata, India. Photo by Jorge Royan/Wikimedia Commons.
True! Single extreme weather events can't prove or disprove global climate trends. What can prove them is actual long-term data. And that, unfortunately, keeps piling up.
January 2016 was the hottest single month on record.
Alright! Warm January! Heck yeah. I can get down with that. Photo via iStock.
Until it was beaten by...
February 2016, which smashed January's record like a particularly smashy bug.
This is getting a lil' weird, though. Photo via iStock.
February had a nice run, until it ran into...
March 2016, which totally owned February, ate its lunch, and kicked it out the door.
Now it's a little scary. Photo via iStock.
You can guess where this is going next. March's temperature record lasted all of no days at all before it was bested by...
April 2016, which was actually the 12th consecutive hottest month of all time.
Today's forecast: Angry sun. Photo via iStock.
Dang.
The good news is, for the first time in forever, we have something resembling a plan.
World leaders, cheering. Photo by Francois Guillot/Getty Images.
Last year in Paris, delegates from 195 countries, including top polluters the U.S. and China, signed the most comprehensive climate agreement of all time, each pledging to limit emissions in order to keep the total global temperature increase under 2 degrees Celsius.
Great, right? Pretty great.
But there's a hitch on the horizon.
Namely, this guy:
Photo by Mark Lyons/Getty Images.
Donald Trump told Reuters reporters yesterday that as president, he'd "re-negotiate" the Paris Agreement "at minimum."
"At a maximum, I may do something else," he warned.
Do we really want to find out what "something else" is, America?
Trump is, of course, free to say what he wants (and boy, does he know it, see his comments on women, Muslims and immigrants as evidence).
Given, however, that his approach to one of the most serious issues of our time is at best vague and at worst an implicit threat to human civilization, it's important that Americans who care about global warming exercise our freedom to not vote for him or any other politician that doesn't promise to take serious steps to combat climate change.
There's simply too much at stake.
Not just sea level rise. Not just massive population displacement. And not just worldwide crop devastation or extreme weather — but the loss of countless lives.
The good news? We still have a chance to vote that future down.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
Let's not waste it, 'kay?