To repeat.
Climate change is not something that is happening somewhere else – the arctic, India Pakistan.
Or even California, Texas, or Arizona.
This summer’s brutal heat, choking smoke, and punishing storms have shown that there will be no place to take refuge and watch the world burn on TV.
There is no trouble with your reception. This is actually happening.
PJM Interconnection, the biggest U.S. electric grid operator, issued a level one emergency alert for Thursday as people crank up air conditioners to stave off the heat wave.
The operator issued an Energy Emergency Alert Level 1 late on Wednesday for Thursday, signaling that it had available resources to meet firm load and reserve commitments.
PJM oversees supply in a 13-state region, managing and paying on-call generators to keep power systems running.
Demand is forecast to peak at 149,060 megawatts (MW) on Thursday and 155,935 MW on Friday. This compares with a record high of 165,563 MW hit in the summer of 2006.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather expect temperature to hit 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) in Philadelphia and 86 F in Chicago, the two biggest cities PJM oversees.
As a heat wave bakes parts of the country, the Texas power grid hit a record high on July 18, but has so far avoided rolling blackouts, while Arizona also saw power use soaring to an all-time high last week.