We all know where we live: New England. And as a result of this, we know that the weather can be 71℉ and sunny and beautiful one day and then 37℉ and cloudy, rainy, and gross the next. We also know that it’s fall, but why is it nearly 100℉? Is this just your typical New England weather fluctuation, or is it something else entirely?

The heatwave recently has been so bad that the National Weather Service has provided a heat stroke advisory, warning residents of MA to “drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.” (Sobey) To stress the urgency even more, a heat emergency was declared by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. So what’s really happening here? Is this really just Massachusetts weather or could it be a huge warning sign of the seriousness of the global crisis going on?

This summer has brought the hottest days, weeks and months ever recorded. This wasn’t just in Massachusetts or New England-it was across the globe. With the current climate crisis, we have been heating up the Earth more than it can handle, sending more carbon dioxide and methane into the air than trees can absorb, and those emissions have been getting stuck in the atmosphere. Even NASA has reported that this past July has been the hottest month ever recorded since the beginning of recording temperatures, back in 1880 (Focht). To put in even bigger context, in the 143 years that temperatures have been recorded, the average temperature has increased nearly 9 times what it was in the 1940s, the previous record high temperature holder.. (“Global Temperature | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet”). Southern Europe, China and Mexico have also seen record highs this past summer, with temperatures in China and the US exceeding 122℉. 

Global warming, as defined by NASA, is the long term warming of the Earth beginning from the pre-industrial period (“What Is Climate Change? | Facts – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet”). On average the Earth has heated up 0.36℉ every decade since the temperatures began rising in the 1950s. Global warming in itself is caused by something called the “greenhouse effect”. The greenhouse effect is the scientific term that describes how exactly the Earth is heating up. The rays from the sun pierce the atmosphere and reflect back upwards, but because of the thick gasses in the atmosphere caused by fossil fuels, cannot get back out of the atmosphere (Kristof). Global warming has then begun leading to climate change, which is the melting the ice caps, rising sea levels and so many other horrible things.

To answer the question of global warming or just New England, it is almost undeniably global warming contributing to the warming summers, massive heat waves and record high temperatures that we’ve been experiencing lately. These things will not go away either at the rate we continue to send fossil fuels into the atmosphere. There are a surprisingly large amount of things we as high schoolers can do, like carpooling or leaving the lights off in your room, opening windows instead of AC, wasting less food and composting and even trying to bike or walk rather than driving around. Though it may not seem like you’re doing a lot, if many people do the following things we will be able to make a massive difference in the global warming and climate change crisis, helping not just yourself but everyone and everything around you.