On the recordSeptember 16, 2019
Mr. President, I am here today on the Senate floor for ``Time to Wake Up'' speech No. 253. If you felt like the heat this summer was particularly brutal, you were not imagining things. July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to NOAA. The Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization noted, ``July has rewritten climate history, with dozens of new temperature records at [the] local, national and global level.'' NOAA says 2019 is on track to tie for the second hottest year on record. Overall, the past 5 years are expected to take the title of the hottest 5-year period in recorded human history. This rapid heating of our Earth is wreaking havoc on our environment and public health. Here is a list from NOAA that you can find on their website, Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events, July 2019, all around the globe. In 1 day--1 day--the Greenland ice sheet lost 12\1/2\ billion tons of ice, melted into the sea. Throughout the world, from France to India, to the Arctic Circle, temperature records shattered. On July 4, the people of Anchorage, AK, experienced their first ever 90-degree day. At one point in July, excessive heat warnings asked nearly 170 million Americans to avoid the outdoors and take shelter in air conditioning, where available.…





