The increased Global Warming that is driving our climate change is one of the top modern existential threats to humanity. The international scientific and government communities have created tracking models that allow us to predict and know the current and future planetary temperature rise, and the impacts that human-caused climate change has on the global ecosystem. The scientific community has called for new action from the public, private, and business sectors to create knowledge, initiatives, technologies, and policies; to directly and disruptively impact the decrease of the global temperature and the impact of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). Global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. Nineteen of the warmest years have occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. The year 2020 is tied with 2016 for the warmest year on record since record-keeping began in 1880 (source: NASA/GISS). This research is broadly consistent with similar constructions prepared by the Climatic Research Unit and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Current policies around the world are projected to result in about a 2.9°C warming above pre-industrial levels. Scientists have run an “optimistic” targets scenario analyzing the effect of net zero emissions targets of 131 countries that are adopted in the Paris Climate Agreement; governments will achieve targets with median warming estimates is 2.0°C, to below 2.2°C. Limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels means that the emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced rapidly in the coming years and decades, and brought to zero before mid-century. The Climate Action Tracker is an independent scientific analysis that tracks government climate action and measures it against the globally agreed Paris Agreement aim of "holding warming well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C." A collaboration of two organizations, Climate Analytics and New Climate Institute, the CAT has been providing this independent analysis to policymakers since 2009.

Studies show that with temperatures so high "the emergence of heat and humidity is too severe for human tolerance.” Dangerous wet bulb temperatures occur when the human body can no longer sweat to cool itself down at humidity above 95 percent and temperatures are at least 88 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature even healthy people can be victimized, regardless of what state they are in. "Even if they're in perfect health, even if they're sitting in the shade, even if they're wearing clothes that make it easy in principle to sweat, even if they have an endless supply of water," Lamont Research Professor Radley Horton of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told Vice. "If there's enough moisture in the air, it's thermodynamically impossible to prevent the body from overheating." Perspiration is a natural function of the body that helps prevent people from overheating, producing fluids that are secreted by the sweat glands in the person’s skin. As the sweat evaporates, it draws heat away from the body. But the atmosphere has a limit as to how much moisture it will absorb, and it can’t be too humid. In humid conditions, sweat is less likely to evaporate into the atmosphere as opposed to dry conditions, like that of the desert, which is more comfortable than humid heat for this reason. It is possible that other forms of adaptation and technological changes, other than through income-based adjustments, might modify the temperature-mortality relationship over time. For example, provision of public heat alert systems, improved preparation of the medical system for heat-related diseases, or people learning to avoid activity during the hottest parts of the day might all reduce the adverse effects of extreme heat over time.