Europe is in the middle of something that no longer feels exceptional. Temperature records have broken across the continent, hitting 40°C and above in Germany, France, Hungary and Spain – and costing hundreds of lives.

Where I live in Scandinavia, this kind of temperature is more unusual. Yet Denmark also recently joined the list when 37°C was recorded in the village of Beldringe, north of Åarhus, in late June.

This was the country’s hottest day since records began in 1874, exceeding the previous all-time high by more than half a degree.

For many people, the instinct is to respond using the language of adaptation – talking about things like cooling centres and the need for public health warnings. In other words, adjusting to the effects of climate change.

Adaptation matters – but it is the wrong frame for the more important question of mitigation. That is, whether we’re actually cutting the emissions that are making summers like this more likely and dangerous in the first place.

But is it climate change?

The Danish Meteorological Institute was careful to say a single record cannot be........

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