China fiddles while Rome – and everywhere else – burns

July is set to go down as the world’s hottest month on record, and in the US it has been brutal, says Tom Minear.

Thousands of beachgoers find refuge under umbrellas and in the water at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on July 28. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

As winter drags on in Australia, I’m conscious that I shouldn’t complain about my first full summer living in the northern hemisphere.

But don’t be fooled by the happy snaps which are flooding your social media feeds from friends and relatives gallivanting around the world. July is set to go down as the world’s hottest month on record, and here in the US, it has been brutal.

In Phoenix, residents have suffered through 28 days in a row where the mercury has topped 43C, with 15 days over 46C – both new records with still a month of summer to go.

Last week, the city’s specialist burns facility was full, mostly of patients suffering not from sunburn but – get this – footpath-burn.

Unit director Kevin Foster told CNN the temperature of the concrete was “just a little below boiling” at about 82C, leaving people who tripped over and touched the ground with a “pretty deep burn” in only “a fraction of a second”.

Thousands of beachgoers find refuge under umbrellas and in the water at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on July 28. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

In case that wasn’t alarming enough, the medical examiner trucked in refrigerated containers to handle a potential surge in heat-related deaths. They were preparing based on experience – last year, 425 people died in the area because of the heat, up 25 per cent on 2021.

Down in Florida, even a dip in the ocean wouldn’t work to cool off. At Manatee Bay, meteorologists said the seawater temperature of 38C was likely the hottest on record worldwide, with Yale’s Jeff Masters saying it was as warm as his hot tub.

China hasn’t been spared either. To keep the airconditioning on and avoid the blackouts that caused chaos two years ago, the government has ramped up coal-fired power, no mean feat in a country that already burns more coal than the rest of the world combined.

A man fans himself while taking a break in an alley during heatwave conditions in Beijing. Picture: Greg Baker/AFP

In turn, this means China’s coal usage now produces more carbon emissions than all US energy generation.

So when UN boss António Guterres declared last week that global warming had been replaced by “global boiling”, and renewed his generic call for climate action, it was hard not to be a little cynical.

Because unfortunately, whatever gains are made in countries like ours, the thermometer will keep going in the same direction until China’s emissions are reined in.

Relying on Xi Jinping is hardly reassuring. In the meantime, perhaps Australians will start thinking twice about their mid-year escapes overseas. Winter isn’t that bad after all.

Originally published as China fiddles while Rome – and everywhere else – burns