Via the BBC:
France has hit its highest recorded temperature - 45.9C (114.6F) - amid a heatwave in Europe that has claimed several lives.
The new record was measured in the southern village of Gallargues-le-Montueux. Before this year the previous record was 44.1C during a heatwave in 2003 that killed thousands.
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn warned that "everyone is at risk".
France's weather service has issued an unprecedented red alert for four areas.
Those are all in the south, but most of the country remains on orange alert, the second-highest level.
Meteorologists say hot air drawn in from northern Africa is responsible, caused by high pressure over central Europe and a storm stalling over the Atlantic.
Here’s the background — why so hot, and how.
Here’s how to cope.
A map from 2018 showing hot spots around the world.
Again from 2018 — 5 places that set new heat records.
Predictions on how much worse it will get by 2040 and 2050.
Republicans and the monied/corporate interests behind them are not just in denial — they are working to suppress any efforts to deal with this. The terrible ‘good’ news is that it’s getting harder to ignore the 500 pound gorilla in the room — but that won’t stop them from using any means to keep doing it. They are hiding the bad news — you cannot trust government under Republican control for the truth.
It’s past time to start calling the fossil fuel industry and their agents what they are: Merchants of Death. Like the tobacco industry, like the gun lobby, it’s all about profits over people and the planet.
While the headline is about Europe, the climate crisis is global. If you’re not feeling the effects where you are, be sure you will — and it doesn’t have to be direct like a heat wave, a monster hurricane, a flood, or massive snowfall.
Expect higher prices for food or worse as crops fail and agriculture is disrupted. Expect higher taxes to repair infrastructure that can no longer function under the ‘new normal’. (Got water? Count your blessings and keep an eye on it.) Expect higher health costs as weather puts increasing stress on people and new disease threats. Expect the need for more military spending to cope with disruption from climate refugees and political upheaval.
Expect the unexpected — because we are living under conditions human civilization has never encountered before. And the change is accelerating…
Here’s the (somewhat) good news. This is being caused by humans. It can be ameliorated by humans. (Too late to avoid all the consequences.) We don’t need any technology break throughs to get started. (Although we ARE going to need every tool we can develop.) How well we and the rest of the planet survive is directly proportional to how much effort we put into this and how quickly. (One place where ‘working harder AND smarter’ can actually make a difference.)
The enemy we must master is this: human nature. The one thing we can’t spare is time. It’s not really a hard problem to figure out once we realize this.
If you have personal stories of what you are seeing where you are that may be related to changing climate, please share them in comments.