By Mary O’KEEFE

It may sound like a broken, albeit melting, record but the Earth has seen another hottest month on record.

July 2022 was the world’s sixth hottest July on record, according to National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) National Center for Environmental Information.

“Last month also saw Earth’s sixth hottest year-to-date on record as Antarctic sea ice coverage plunged to a record low for a second consecutive month,” according to NOAA.

July marked the 46^th consecutive July and the 451^st consecutive month of temperatures above the 20th century average. The five warmest Julys on record have all occurred since 2016.

And the future does not look any better. According to the NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Rankings Outlook there is a greater than 99% chance that 2022 will rank among the 10 warmest years on record and an 11% chance the year will rank among the top five.

The fact is scientists have been warning of this accelerated climate change since the early 1800s, and some say even before. In 1856, Eunice Foote, an amateur scientist and famous suffragette, tested the heat-trapping abilities of different gases. Her paper, “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” was presented to scientists. She couldn’t actually present it herself to the American Association for the Advancement of Science because women were not allowed to speak to the male scientists so a male friend presented her findings.

Women are often called the canaries in the mines of the world. Historically, canaries would be taken into coal mines to detect the presence of carbon monoxide – a gas that is dangerous for humans. Because of canaries’ small size and quick rate of breathing they would succumb to the gas before the miners would and therefore warn them of danger. Ironically, Eunice Foote was actually the canary singing a warning but no one would hear her.

And so her findings of how trapped gases could affect the Earth’s temperature were pretty much ignored.

“An atmosphere of that gas would give our Earth a high temperature; and if, as some suppose, at one period of its history the air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present, an increased temperature from its own action as well as from increased weight must have necessarily resulted,” she wrote in her paper.

Of course there have been more scientists, male and female, who have carried on the experiments and theories from Eunice Foote’s first findings. Many of these scientists have been faced with ridicule and have been accused of bringing only doom to the world. For a very long time climate change deniers were very vocal, but the tide, literally, appears to be changing. Maybe those who were denying had an epiphany or maybe they do not want to be now known as a climate change Nero playing as the icebergs melted; whatever the reason. it is encouraging to see more and more people realizing that conservation must be a way of life to continue living on Earth.

And isn’t it a little ironic that the words of a woman who was not allowed to speak are finally being heard?

In the area of Crescenta Valley and Burbank, expect highs in the low 90s through Friday with a little break with temps dropping a few degrees on Saturday and Sunday, then seeing temps go up again beginning Monday. Slight winds begin tonight into Friday with gusts between 15 and 20 miles per hour.