Saudi Arabia is expected to experience above-average temperatures across most of the Kingdom through October, with rainfall intensifying from September and potentially reaching heavy to very heavy levels in some areas later in the season, the National Center for Meteorology said. And England and Wales both experienced the “driest July on record,” the UK Met Office weather agency said.

And UN scientists warn that strong El Nino will add fuel to ‘a planet already on fire’. So climate change’s fingerprints are all over extreme fire weather that sparked this week’s devastating wildfires in Spain and France, and has spiked Southern Europe’s burning the past eight years, two new studies conclude. Human-caused climate change made the very hot and dry conditions responsible for Spain’s record-sized inferno 20 times more likely to happen, and it doubled the chances of extreme fire conditions for the flames in France. And half of England is in drought after a record dry spell and high temperatures the British Environment Agency said.

Heat waves aren’t just getting worse on land, the majority of the world’s oceans are experiencing record-breaking temperatures too. These marine heat waves are getting longer, more intense and reaching farther than ever before. Sea levels are rising faster than at any time in 4,000 years, with China’s major coastal cities at particular risk. The rapid increase is driven by warming oceans and melting ice, while human activities like groundwater pumping make it worse.

Also a group of scientists, whose research was recently published in Science, used satellite data to determine why these severe heat waves are happening. They found that 96% of the world’s ocean surfaces experienced heat wave conditions, compared with a historical (1982–2022) average of 73.7%. They also found that the average duration of heat waves had gone up to 120 days, quadrupling the historical average.

I am a Reform Rabbi who believes our planet and our species will survive and thrive through the coming climate change catastrophes, but the longer humans delay transforming our way of life away from carbon based fuels like gas, oil and coal; the more it will cost us.

The majority of Christians, Jews, and Muslims do not believe that all of humanity is moving closer and closer to a catastrophic Judgement Day. The minority who do think that Judgement Day is coming soon share the usual negative, fear-filled views of most end-times thinkers: Christians, Jews and especially Muslims, who do believe that: “The hour (of Judgement) is near” (Qur’an 54:1); and ˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near, yet they heedlessly turn away.” (Qur’an 21:1)

According to a 2012 poll by the Pew Research Center, at least half of Muslims in nine Muslim-majority countries believe that the coming of the Mahdi is “imminent,” and could happen in their lifetime. Sadly these end-times thinkers always see pre-ordained threats of a cataclysmic world wide doom; and not just the warning of the consequences if we humans do not repent and change our behavior.

This is clearly a warning for all serious Christians, Jews and Muslims. A World Meteorological Organization forecast for the next several years also predicts a 90% chance that the world will set yet another record for the hottest year by the end of 2025; that the Atlantic will continue to brew more potentially dangerous hurricanes; meteorologists say large parts of land in the Northern Hemisphere will be 1.4 degrees warmer than recent decades, and the U.S. Southwest’s drought will continue.

It is true that human society has changed more rapidly, violently, and fundamentally in the last century of the second millennium........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)