The Heat Is On

Last Sunday, July 21, the Earth reached a new record for the hottest day since such records began to be kept, when the global temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius, or 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit. That record stood for exactly one day: Monday, July 22, the average global temperature reached 17.16 degrees Celsius, or about 62.89 degrees Fahrenheit.

The science magazine Wired provides some context: The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service uses a computer model to fold together observed temperatures and satellite information to simulate average temperatures at 2 meters above the land surface on the entire Earth. The reading came as the Northern Hemisphere is in the midst of summer; that’s typical, since oceans in the Southern Hemisphere are still slowly cooling.

Will it continue to get worse? Likely. “Global carbon dioxide emissions hit record highs last year. This means we are likely to see more heat extremes and record-high temperatures in coming decades,” Wired notes, though the end of El Niño weather conditions could allow for a slight cooling-off in the coming months, a temporary reprieve rather than a change in trajectory.

Coinciding with that news was the exhibition at the Asia Society in Manhattan, “COAL + ICE,” which has a local connection: the participation of documentary photographer Susan Meiselas of Sagaponack, as well as its executive producer, Orville Schell, who is a frequent visitor to the East End. The show, which has been featured at galleries throughout the world, draws a direct connection between the burning of fossil fuels and the environmental and human costs, as climate change starts to take a tangible toll. The cost is readily apparent in changes to glaciers, ice sheets and ice caps. But there are stunning visuals in the show from other parts of the globe, including China, where the devastation is apparent in many other ways.

But do we really need to look so far afield? The evidence is all around us.

Just last year, Canadian wildfires were the most extensive in history, burning about 5 percent of Canada’s forests — and the smoke created a wide blanket of soot and pollutants that darkened skies in this region for weeks. For years, our warming waters locally have created challenging conditions for marine life, and favorable conditions for harmful algae. Just last week, Montauk’s Fort Pond was identified as an area with nagging pollution, and there are calls for new methods to clean up Lake Agawam in Southampton Village, which is among the most polluted water bodies in New York State.

Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heating pot of water, we’re starting to feel the heat. Or are we? For too many, the whole concept of “climate change” remains remote, something that “future generations” will be forced to reckon with. There’s little acknowledgment that it’s starting now, today, and we’re the first generation to truly face its wrath.

It’s probably too late to talk about a wakeup call — if we can’t shake the drowsiness, it’s going to take more than a burst of caffeine to begin to make up ground. First, the urgency in conversations about concepts like managed retreat from the coastline are going to begin to overshadow the worthwhile investments in beach nourishment. Dumping sand will buy a little time, but it’s a snooze button at best.

Likewise, the rising heat will worsen the impact of all the other forms of pollution around us — not a small consideration in a region with so much sewage flowing so evidently into and around our drinking water supplies. It was dismaying to learn that Riverhead Town is poised to fight with Southampton Town over a proposed septic treatment plant in Riverside — the truth is, we need decisive, overlapping action to begin to treat the river of fundament (to steal a phrase from artist Matthew Barney) that threatens to drown us all. Those promised I/A systems are long overdue and accomplishing nothing while residents and government officials haggle over paperwork to pay for them.

In this, the hottest part of the summer of 2024, let’s start to truly feel the heat, start to understand the rising alarm that must come with rising global temperatures, and stop thinking we have all the time in the world to address our worsening conditions. The water just gets warmer all the time.