chasing answers newsletter #64

It's getting hot in here, Parking lots - again

“The less we do to address climate change now, the more regulation we will have in the future.” - Bill Nye

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Happy Sunday!

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a teensy bit warm just about everywhere this summer. 

Somehow, here in Ohio, we’ve managed to avoid the mayhem. The temperatures have been pretty moderate, and this is coming from someone who hates hot weather.

Many places haven’t been as fortunate. Worldwide, people are suffering from mind-boggling heat. I don’t know how bad it has to get to convince everyone that global warming is a thing, but we have to be approaching that level.

If you haven't been paying attention to the global weather, here are seven almost unbelievable facts about this summer's heatwave.

• The first full week of July was the hottest global average temperature ever recorded, and experts expect that July will be the hottest month in 120,000 years.

• The heat index (the measure of how hot the air actually feels when temperature and humidity are factored in) is above 150F in parts of the Middle East.

• Death Valley in California reached 128F last Sunday.

• As of the time of writing this, there have been 20 straight days of heat above 110F in Phoenix, Arizona, which broke a record set in 1974.

• The Gulf of Mexico is boiling. Parts of the Florida Keys are experiencing water temperatures of 95F, with one spot measuring 97F. These temperatures are about five degrees higher than average and are causing concern for the Gulf coral reefs.

• Records are being set across China. In June, Beijing had temperatures of 104F two days in a row which had never happened before. And a small town in northwest China set a national record last week with a temperature of 126F.

• Canada is still burning. So far, in 2023, 9 million hectares have already burned, compared to a 10-year average of ~800,000 hectares.

If we don’t do something, actually, if we don’t do as much as possible to address climate change soon, this will become the new normal.

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Parking Lots - Again

Several months ago, in my newsletter, I included an article about how Michigan State University had devised a clever way to solve a problem that has bothered me for years - empty parking lots.

Most parking lots spend most of their time sitting empty, and Michigan State found a great way to use that space by filling the lots with solar panels that were built so that cars could park underneath them.

Well, here’s some history on how we ended up with so many damn parking lots in the first place. No one covers topics like this with more humor than Climate Town. I highly recommend checking out their other videos as well.

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Photo(s) of the Week

This picture looked great in person, but when I got home and looked at it on the computer, not so much.

I was going to scrap it but decided to do some heavy editing instead to see if I could take it in a completely different direction. I was fairly satisfied with the end result.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy