The intense heat, which has been reaching dangerous levels for many weeks now, has been causing the suspension of face-to-face sessions in schools, widely affecting agriculture as well as other industries and livelihoods, and bringing so much discomfort to the people. The extreme heat that we are experiencing now, reminds us of the warning aired by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres in June 2023, “The era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived,” he declared.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has noted that various locations in the country had logged dangerous heat numbers, from 42 degrees Celsius to 51 degrees Celsius.

Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. warned that global warming would continue until mankind starts reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Global warming, he stressed, is being accelerated by the burning of fossil fuels.

Solidum explained that countries must work together to keep from reaching the threshold, the first being the 1.5-degrees Centigrade “industrial-level temperature.” “If it gets hotter (by 2 to 2.5 degrees), we don’t know what will happen and there will be many consequences,” he said.

“Era of global boiling”

World’s hottest day on record, hottest week, hottest month – these all occurred in 2023, which, as United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has warned, were evidences that “the era of global boiling” has arrived.

“The era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived,” Guterres said in June 2023.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” he said as he described “children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames, workers collapsing in scorching heat.”

The UN, citing data from various weather and climate monitoring centers, said that the Earth experienced its hottest month ever in July 2023, including the hottest week which was on the first week of that month, and the hottest day in history, July 4, 2023, which was even within the hottest three days in a row on world record: July 3, 4 and 5 of that year, marked by an average global temperature of 17.18 degrees Celsius (62.92 degrees Fahrenheit).

During those dates, dangerously intense heat threatened the peoples of the world with heat-related health problems, the UN said.

Researchers attribute these record heat levels to climate change brought about by a combination of El Niño, a weather pattern that has a global warming effect, and of human activities such as burning of fuels for industries, transportation and daily chores, as well as accumulation of non-biodegradable wastes, neglect and even destruction of the environment such as forests and watersheds, and many others.

Scientists point out that “global boiling” is not a scientific term, although they recognize the intention of the UN official to drum up the warning and the call for the world to act.

“He [Guterres] tried to come up with an even more compelling and sensational wording to try and get people’s attention, and I think we all understand why he’s doing that, because we have to make the governments take climate change seriously and put it at the top of their agendas,” according to the chairman of Britain’s Climate Change Committee.

Secretary Solidum commented, “The term global boiling was used by the UN secretary-general to highlight the fact that we are experiencing global warming and for all countries to act, especially those who burn carbon.”

Earth Summit

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit, was held to discuss the steps that countries should undertake to save the world.

The Earth Summit resulted in the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system.” Its supreme or highest decision-making body is the Conference of the Parties (COP) which meets annually to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

In 2014, the historic Paris Agreement on climate change was established to provide an opportunity for countries to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change. The countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the COP21.

It has been agreed by countries that a combination of actions – from individuals, governments, industries, and all sectors is needed to address climate change.

To address climate change and the “global boiling,” steps must be undertaken at high-level, such as governments’ and industries’ transitioning to the use of clean and renewable energy sources, reforestation and nurturing of the environment, reduction of carbon footprints and the like, and at individual and domestic level, such as simple waste segregation, planting of trees, recycling and several others that ordinary people and household can accomplish.