In case you missed it while melting in the August heatwave, the European Commission’s Copernicus report dropped a fun little fact bomb: the global average temperature has hit record highs over the past year. The Copernicus report revealed that global average temperatures hit an all-time high in the past year, soaring 1.51 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

It’s not just the Europeans ringing the alarm bells. Down in Alabama, Roy Spencer and John Christy from the University of Alabama Huntsville used satellite data to figure out that this past August was 0.88 degrees Celsius warmer than the 30-year average. So yeah, it’s not just you—it has been hotter than usual.

Extreme heat is a major concern. It’s not only an environmental issue but also a health crisis. Cities across the U.S. are finding it challenging to cope with this heat. Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, highlighted that this is a newer and more severe issue.

President Joe Biden unveiled the National Heat Strategy in mid-August to put some action behind all the talk. It’s designed to handle rising temperatures from 2024 to 2030, which sounds nice on paper. However, the plan mainly follows the UN’s climate panel, which blames human-made CO2 emissions for climate problems. The goal is to cut greenhouse gases and reach net zero CO2.

The IPCC’s Panmao Zhai, a Chinese climatologist and co-chair of the IPCC Working Group I, was clear that cutting CO2 and methane would help save the planet and maybe even improve our health. (Bonus: cleaner air means fewer asthma attacks, maybe?)

Not everyone’s on board with the whole “CO2 is ruining everything” train. Ned Nikolov, a physical scientist and researcher affiliated with Colorado State University, stated that the IPCC is mistaken about CO2. Nikolov, said it’s not CO2 that’s making things hotter.  He said that the Earth is actually absorbing more sunlight thanks to fewer clouds. Yep, according to Nikolov, it’s not what’s in the air; it’s what’s “not” in the air that’s the problem. What’s missing?  The clouds, or, more specifically, cloud coverage, and now we’re paying the price.

Nikolov and his partner-in-climate-research, Karl Zeller, published a study that claims the recent warming has nothing to do with CO2. They argue that reduced global cloud cover is letting in more sunlight, which is the real reason on why things are heating up. The two scientist used NASA’s satellite data to help back up their claims. They pointed out that Earth’s albedo (the amount of sunlight it reflects back into space) has decreased.

Nikolov challenges the widely accepted greenhouse theory, arguing that CO2 does not trap heat the way most people believe and that the true factors behind global warming are cloud behavior and atmospheric pressure. According to his explanation, the atmosphere heats up through adiabatic processes, meaning that increased pressure, rather than greenhouse gases, is responsible for rising temperatures. Essentially, he argues that clouds play a critical role in regulating heat, and their reduction has allowed more solar radiation to reach our surface.

Nikolov doesn’t think we should completely ignore CO2, but he believes that focusing only on greenhouse gas emissions misses the bigger issue. He feels climate scientists should worry less about carbon and more about why clouds are disappearing. He even offers up some suggestions on what could be causing the cloud changes: solar winds and magnetic fields.

NASA says that while the sun plays a role, human activity is driving the rapid warming we’ve seen in recent decades. But according to Nikolov, the sun is guilty as charged, and the UN’s climate agenda just doesn’t want to talk about it.

So, who’s right? While the scientists argue, we’ll just keep sweating it out, wondering if CO2 or runaway clouds are cooking us alive.