MOBILE, Ala. >> Here’s a grim forecast: Climate scientists say this could be one of the coolest summers I will see for the rest of my life. Yet, it’s too hot and humid to enjoy the patio, even in the evenings. I still exercise outdoors, but my hour-long bike rides start no later than 7:30 a.m. I fear the risk of heat stroke if I start any later.

This area has been under so many severe heat warnings this summer that I’ve lost track. So has much of the rest of the nation. Western Europe hasn’t been spared. Neither have South Korea and Japan.

In a recent news conference, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres declared, “The era of global warming is over. The era of global boiling has begun.” That may seem dire, given that climate scientists say the term “global boiling” has no scientific meaning, but I find it difficult to call it exaggeration.

July will go down as the hottest month since humans began keeping records about such things, climate scientists tell us, and it might be the hottest month in the last 120,000 years. Even if they don’t agree that the Earth is boiling, scientists do agree that this summer of severe heat would not have been possible without human-caused global warming.

Boston University professor Gregory Wellenius, an expert in environmental health, told The Guardian he expects this year to break records in terms of heat-related deaths. “We are seeing the full spectrum of risks, from heat exhaustion to more injuries from dehydration to even new food- or water-borne illnesses because bacteria can replicate faster in warmer weather,” he said.

Even as we humans boil, though, we are curiously unconcerned about the harm we are doing to the planet. Climate scientists continue to issue warnings weekly, and radical activists continue their odd (and likely futile) tactic of defacing valuable art in protest of climate policies, but most of us are unmoved.

Or, at least, our habits are unchanged. So are our politics. The Republican Party is still a reliable handmaiden to the fossil fuel industry; worse yet, some conservatives have moved into full-fledged anti-science conspiracy mode. In Arizona, for example, some Republicans are refusing to acknowledge human-caused climate change as a crisis, despite the fact that dozens of people have died from extreme heat this summer.

Researchers say Arizona’s heat has been record-breaking, but state native Justin Heap, a GOP state legislator, doesn’t care what scientists say. “I don’t recall feeling that this July was particularly hotter than any other July that I remember. It’s just that all of a sudden, every media story was telling me it was hotter than it’s ever been,” he told Politico.

Not to be outdone, Florida’s state education department has approved for classroom use videos produced by the reactionary Prager University Foundation. Prager is a hotbed of climate-science denial; its CEO, Marissa Streit, told Politico that its videos will help to balance classrooms that have been “hijacked by the left. … The climate is always changing,” she said, using one of the favorite phrases of climate-change deniers.

President Biden, for his part, has done more to address climate change than any of his predecessors. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, contained billions of dollars (some of which the GOP wants to take back) to push the nation toward cleaner energy and to prepare infrastructure for a warmer world.

But the president is keenly aware of domestic politics, so he has approved some oil and gas pipeline projects to placate allies such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., whose fortune comes from coal. Biden is also keenly aware that American voters want convenience, comfort and cheap gas, so he released oil from the nation’s strategic reserves to increase supply last year, when gas prices spiked.

The problem, then, is us. Even with clear and abundant evidence of the disastrous consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels, we cannot be bothered to change our ways. Biologists refute the old tale about a frog slowly boiling getting used to the heat as it cooks, so I suppose that isn’t true of frogs. But could it be true of humans?

Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.