This summer is unusual. There have been many ultra-hot days in which the mercury has risen above 35 degrees Celsius. Cloudbursts have occurred frequently, while some areas are suffering from extremely low precipitation, creating fears of water shortages.
Such abnormalities do not appear to be limited to Japan. Heat waves are said to have hit Europe and China for many days.
The 14th Group of Seven Summit, in Toronto (June 1988), marked the first time when problems related to global warming were taken up at an international forum. At a multinational meeting on the global environment that took place a week later in Toronto under the Canadian government's sponsorship, conferees heard a shocking simulation-based report that if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continued to rise at the then prevailing rate, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would double by the end of the 21st century, raising the ground-level temperature by 3 degrees and elevating sea levels by 60 cm.
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