In Europe this week, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands recorded all-time national high temperatures, with Germany hitting 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Paris hit a high of 109 degrees Fahrenheit. These records come after June set a record for the hottest ever in Europe.
A new report, published in the science journal PLOS One, predicts that within 30 years three-quarters of the world’s largest 520 cities will experience near-catastrophic climate change. London could soon be as hot as Barcelona, Paris will feel like drought-starved Canberra, New York could become just as steamy as Virginia Beach, and Singapore will start to suffer conditions unlike any it has seen.
The only way to avert this fate, according to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (I.P.C.C.), is for countries to cut carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050, with steep cuts in other greenhouse gases, such as methane.
Imagine your city sliding 20 miles south each year on the globe, and you start to picture what awaits.
