When the French are banning booze, you know things are really getting extreme. It is only June, but Europe is suffering through its second major heat wave in two months, and this one is shattering records by astonishing margins.

It’s the most severe heat wave ever recorded on the continent — temperatures and humidity that are only possible because of fossil-fuelled climate change, according to a scientific analysis released on Friday. There are red alerts in countries as varied as Britain and Italy, Switzerland and Spain. France has received the brunt of the heat dome so far, repeatedly logging its hottest days ever, beating records set the day before. The fact that authorities have banned alcohol in public spaces is hardly the most devastating human impact, but it certainly demonstrates just how worried officials are.

And for good reason: Heat may be a silent killer, but it is vicious. One estimate found that more than 62,000 Europeans died from heat-related deaths in 2024, the planet’s hottest year so far. “Over just the past 4 years, heat has claimed more than 200,000 lives across the EU,” said Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director, in a statement earlier this month. 

The truly unsettling thing isn't that Europe is enduring record heat. It's that these are just the early stages of climate change. Every tonne of carbon pollution we add today makes tomorrow's heatwaves more likely, more intense and more deadly.

Scientific studies have found the vast majority of these premature deaths — as much as 68 per cent — are attributable to higher temperatures caused by fossil-fuelled climate change. In other words, climate change is already tripling the death toll. 

The intensity of the current heat wave is astounding meteorologists. The temperatures in France beat the all-time record for Florida, which is 20 degrees of latitude closer to the equator. “This type of event would be almost impossible without climate change,” wrote Jeff Berardelli, a prominent Florida meteorologist. “Historically speaking it’s likely greater than a 1,000 year event, but in today’s climate it’s becoming just another summer.”

The scorching temperatures have prompted some sheepish backpedalling over climate hushing and the drop in media coverage. Le Monde’s editorial page slammed  “politicians [who] still fail to treat the fight against global warming as an absolute priority.” The editorial concludes:........

© National Observer