On this edition of Your Call's One Planet Series, we're discussing the record-breaking heatwave gripping Europe.
France's public health agency says around 1,000 additional deaths were reported last week during the peak of the country's record-breaking heatwave. The WHO's Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warns that Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average. Millions of people are enduring extreme heat, he says, while schools have closed, and power grids are struggling to keep up.
World Weather Attribution, an international scientific collaboration that analyzes extreme weather events, says daytime highs and overnight temperatures that have been scorching several European countries likely could not have occurred in 1976, and a similar heatwave in that historic climate event would be 6.3°F cooler.
Guest:
Beth Gardiner, environmental journalist, and author of Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution and Plastic Inc: The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil’s Biggest Bet
Resources:
The Atlantic: Europe’s Come-to-AC Moment
World Weather Attribution: Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades
World Weather Attribution: Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades
The Guardian: Heatwave and high humidity to blast much of US: ‘impactful to anyone’
The Guardian: Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary swelter through hottest days on record
