Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s getting hot in here. “Here” being Earth. July and August both set records for the hottest ever, and 2016 is all but guaranteed to be the warmest year on record. But if we’re lucky, what really sets this year apart is that it could be the moment when we as a civilization finally decided to put a stop to global warming.

That was the take-home message from the United Nation’s General Assembly meeting today, where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the announcement that an additional 31 countries have signed on to the Paris climate accord. That brings the total number of countries formally on board to 60, accounting for nearly 48 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

In order for the agreement made last year at the UN’s COP 21 climate meeting to go into effect, 55 countries representing 55 percent of emissions must sign on. With one of the two major thresholds reached and the other near at hand, Ban told the assembly he was “ever more […]