Yonhap via Reuters
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded. The records continued to be broken early this month as the average global temperature surged to its highest ever level. Brutal heat waves are now blazing in North America, Europe, and some regions of Asia, and with El Niño warming once again in the Pacific, experts say 2023 could become the hottest year the world has ever seen.
Whether or not the dire milestone is reached remains to be seen‚ but the catastrophic consequences of a rapidly warming planet are already painfully evident.
As of Monday, record monsoon rains in South Korea over the weekend led to at least 40 deaths as the downpours triggered landslides and flooding around the country. In one particularly chilling case, at least 13 people died in the central city of Cheongju as over a dozen vehicles became trapped as floodwater poured into an underpass.