Scorching temperatures broke records three times this week and July is just getting started

The hottest day in recorded history was charted earlier this week. The record was broken the next day. Then again on Thursday. The planet Earth has likely experienced warmer days in its long history, but for humanity, this is uncharted territory. Experts agree that the primary culprit is human-caused climate change.

The other factor is El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern in which ocean oscillations in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean drive an influx in warm ocean weather. This is part of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is entirely natural. In contrast, anthropogenic climate change is being caused by humans emitting so much carbon into the atmosphere that it unnaturally traps greenhouse gases, gradually overheating the planet.

That is why, on the heels of the hottest June ever recorded, humanity is reeling from a series of unprecedented heatwaves that bring about thermometer-busting heat records. These heatwaves have ranged from India and South America to the American southwest and eastern seaboard, where people have been choking on smoke due to Canadian wildfires.

“Climate change is ravaging the planet,” declared Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in an 11 minute address posted to social media. “If there is not bold, immediate, and united action by governments throughout the world, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids and future generations is very much in question.”

Scientists back up his declaration. Dr. Michael E. Mann, a professor of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, told Salon by email earlier this week that research shows the planet heading toward a future where massive heatwaves and droughts occur to one-fifth of the planet on a regular basis. Similarly a January study in the journal Nature Sustainability concluded that “over 90% of the world population and GDP is projected to be exposed to increasing compounding risks in the future climate, even under the lowest emission scenario.”