THE HEATWAVE WITNESSED across Europe over the past week served as a hypnic jerk to millions, reminding us of the very real existential threat that the climate crisis poses to life as we know it.

On Sunday, the French public health agency reported at least 1,000 excessive deaths occurred as temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius in much of the country.

That figure is expected to rise. In Ireland we inched towards new record temperatures, though we haven’t yet surpassed that threshold, as some European countries have.

It was estimated that 191 million people in Europe would experience temperatures over 35 degrees over the course of last week’s heatwave, and headlines have outlined the consequences of this.

Thousands of schools closed. Sports events and Pride celebrations have been cancelled, while agricultural work had to take place at nighttime. French nuclear reactors had to shut down as the water used to cool them was too warm. Around Europe, dozens of drowning deaths were reported as people tried to cool off in high temperatures.

Throughout all of this, scientists have noted that this freak weather event would not have been possible without the climate crisis caused by excessive consumption of fossil fuels.

It’s clear that something needs to change immediately and we have no shortage of things that we can cut back on that the majority of the world don’t want or need, namely war.

Accelerating hostilities

At the beginning of June, a new study from Sweden’s Uppsala University, recorded that we’re currently witnessing the highest number of conflicts between states since........

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