How did a small town in Canada become one of the hottest places on Earth?
On Sunday, the small mountain town of Lytton, British Columbia, became one of the hottest places in the world. Then, on Monday, Lytton got even hotter  47.9C (118F  hotter than its ever been in Las Vegas, 1,300 miles to the south. Lytton is at 50 deg N latitude  about the same as London. This part of the world should never get this hot. Seattles new all-time record of 108F, also set Monday, is hotter than its ever been in Miami. In Portland, the new record of 116F would beat the warmest day ever recorded in Houston by nearly 10 degrees. This heat wave was a perfect storm long in the making. After centuries of fossil fuel burning and decades of warnings from scientists, its time to say it: we are in a climate emergency. Its the mountains of the Pacific coast that have had an essential and unique role in making this particular heat wave possible. Climate change is not just warming the surface of the planet, its warming Earths entire troposphere  the lowest layer of the atmosphere where all our weather occurs. Thats particularly true in mountainous areas, where temperatures are rising even faster than elsewhere. When snow and ice recedes or even disappears from mountains, the bare soil beneath can warm unimpeded. A 2015 study found that mountainous areas above 2,000 meters (6,500ft) are warming about 75% faster than places at lower elevations. Warmer mountains along with the mega-drought now plaguing western North America  the most widespread severe drought on record  contributed to a high pressure heat dome that has been self-reinforcing this week to create truly extreme conditions along the Pacific coast. Dry, descending air rushing down the mountain slopes offshore towards the ocean created a literal pressure cooker, sending temperatures soaring to never-before-seen values. Downstream of Lytton, flood warnings are now in effect for the river valleys as sudden snow and ice melt has created a torrent of rushing water. For the time being, Canadas glaciers are melting so fast theyre flooding out homes under clear skies. The imagery we should remember from this heat wave isnt swimming pools and fountains, its friends and neighbors sharing air conditioning amid a pandemic in a city thats 40 degrees warmer than normal. Its young people braving heat stroke to demand climate action from a president who promised it to them. Its the anxiety of not knowing when or where the next heat wave will be, but knowing that its coming. Its about surviving a society where decades of racial segregation means that redlined neighborhoods are 15 degrees hotter than others. These are the kinds of events that should open our eyes and recognize that climate change is not a science issue, its a human rights issue. While the temperatures have fallen in Seattle and Portland, this heat wave continues to rage for folks in eastern Washington. Farmworkers in the Yakima Valley will be dealing with temperatures over 100F (38C) until at least Monday  six more days. In parts of Pakistan and along the shores of the Persian Gulf, heat waves are already hitting temperatures that are too hot for even healthy people to survive outdoors. This is a public health emergency. If climate is what defines a place  the shape and character of our neighborhoods, the kinds of plants and animals that live nearby, the activities we can enjoy  then we are changing what makes us, us. Its warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai, said David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada in an interview with CTV. I mean, its just not something that seems Canadian.  The most shocking part is that all this is happening with just two degrees Fahrenheit of global warming in the 150 years since we started burning fossil fuels on a large scale. On our current path, were heading for another three to five degrees of warming in half that time. At this point, building a world that can thrive will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the worlds leading body of climate scientists. Climate change isnt just a thing thats happening, its a series of choices made by actual people who are sharing this planet with us. Indigenous resistance to an economy built on extraction needs to be scaled up and combined with climate reparations to the people and places who are most affected. Tuesday will likely be the hottest day in Canadas history for a third day in a row  theres an outside chance of reaching 50C (122F) in Lytton. We are in a climate emergency. We cant wait for other people, weve got to do this ourselves. We were born at just the right moment to help change everything.