The average temperature on Earth on July 4 is an all-time record. It is surpassed on July 5, a record equaled on July 6.

June 2023 was the hottest June ever. Of the five hottest Junes on record, all have occurred in the past five years. 

Lightning sparks more than 100 new wildfires in British Columbia, raising the total to more than 300. 

Temperatures in Florida are 3°F to 5°F above normal. Offshore water temperatures are in the 90°s—as high as 96° in the Florida Keys. Scientists fear the heat will lead to severe coral bleaching. Farmers Insurance abandons the state.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis rejects $377 million in federal clean energy funding. 

Only 5 percent of the national TV news stories about the record-setting heat wave in Texas and the Southwest mention climate change. 

Torrential rains bring catastrophic flooding to Vermont.

Heat above 105°F in China leads to a ban on outdoor work. 

The Biden administration indicates its openness to solar geoengineering.

The Interior Department approves the 1,100-megawatt, 98-turbine Ocean Wind 1 offshore wind farm off of New Jersey, the largest yet in US waters.

A resurgence of native zooplankton makes Lake Tahoe’s water the clearest it has been in 40 years.

A rock shelter in Oregon is dated to at least 18,000 years ago, making it the earliest known human habitation in North America. In South America, 25,000-year-old pendants made from the bones of now-extinct giant ground sloths are found in Brazil. 

Half of US tap water tests positive for PFAS. 

Artificial turf is responsible for up to 15 percent of waterborne plastic particles.

Air pollution from fossil fuel production kills 7,500 people in the United States each year, with an annual health cost of $77 billion.

The US auto industry wants to slow its transition to electric vehicles.  

The Home Depot says that by the end of 2028, 85 percent of its leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and trimmers will run on rechargeable batteries instead of gasoline. 

The United States destroys the last of its chemical weapons.

Woman bites fox. 

Crows and magpies have learned how to use anti-bird spikes to make their nests.