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It appears cultural conflicts aren’t the only things boiling in the U.S., as a Monday temperature reading of a buoy in Florida’s Manatee Bay recorded an astounding 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the average temperature of a hot tub is between 100 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit, global ocean temperatures even around the tropics usually peak at around 86 degrees, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Monday’s reading comes a day after the same buoy recorded a temperature of 100.2 degrees, with surrounding bouys in the high 90s, according to a report from NBC News senior meteorologist Kathryn Prociv.
It’s unclear if the temperature is the highest ocean recording on Earth, but the current record held by the Persian Gulf’s Kuwait Bay showed 99.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Library of Medicine reported in 2020.
Potentially highest ocean temperature reading follows hottest month on record
The alarming temperature readings come after NOAA classified June 2023 as the hottest month ever recorded by humans, with July set to surpass it.
“For the third consecutive month, the global ocean surface temperature hit a record high as weak El Nino conditions that emerged in May continued to strengthen in June,” NOAA wrote on July 13. “Globally, June 2023 set a record for the highest monthly sea surface temperature anomaly of any month in NOAA’s climate record.”
Despite Climate Change becoming an ever-increasing threat to human lives, property and the sustainability of crops, the world is currently not on pace to meet its goals of limiting greenhouse gasses.
Countries not on pace to meet Climate Change goals
The Paris Climate Agreement is a legally binding international treaty among 196 nations who agreed to move their countries to renewable energy in order to limit the impacts of climate change. The goal is to limit global temperature increases to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Yet, countries are not on pace to collectively reach that target, according to an October 2022 United Nations Climate Change report.
“…Countries are bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emissions downward but underlines that these efforts remain insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, as racist rhetoric and policies from white nationalist politicians take center stage in the collective conscious of Americans, the damaging effects of storms and other severe weather events exacerbated by Climate Change continue to disproportionately impact Black and other marginalized communities.
According to NOAA, roughly 40 percent of Americans live near the coasts and a larger percentage of Black people live in states bordering ocean waters.