Earth's on fire - 14th August 2023

July 2023 was the hottest month in history, which followed an unusually hot June. July 2023 had 21 days with record breaking heat and July 6th was the hottest day ever recorded.

The 30 hottest months in history happened in the last 25 years, but July 2023 was special. It had an average global temperature of 16.95 degrees celsius. This is an increase of 0.33 degrees since the last record in July 2019.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the planet is boiling. He asked the G20 countries to change from fossil fuels to clean energy. These countries produce 80 percent of the world's pollution.

In July 2023, there were heatwaves in China, North America and the Mediterranean. Wildfires destroyed 100 thousand hectares of land in Greece, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy. This has created environmental and financial problems.

Scientists think there'll be more heat records in the next five years. Extreme weather like fires and hurricanes will increase.

Climate scientist Dr Friederike Otto said, "We have to live with these and make it possible for people to live with these extreme conditions in summers. They are not rare. And the later we stop burning fossil fuels, the more frequent they become."