Scientist Dr. Lucy Jones issues warning about carbon emissions

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- This past July was the hottest month ever recorded in California.

Scientist Dr. Lucy Jones recently joined the Eyewitness News desk to explain that if people don't reduce the output of carbon, which warms the atmosphere, it will be getting even hotter and fires will be even more extreme.

Q. What do the next 25 years look like in terms of climate change?

A. Let's imagine we do what we do now, which is not stopping the output of carbon. We are going to see it get even hotter. If we don't do anything, we'll look back at this and go "Wow, don't you wish it could've been like it was in 2018?

Q. What's the relationship between the weather and all of these hazardous conditions that we are seeing, such as wildfires?

A. We've shifted the temperature up a bit, but the plants evolved for a cooler temperature. We have suddenly changed their environment on them. As they burn down, they're going to be struggling to come back. So we're going to be seeing a permanent shift in the ecosystem and the way the shift's happened is through fires.

Jones is the founder of the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society.

She is scheduled to co-host a climate luncheon with California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols on Aug. 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale.

Tickets are available here.