Europe was really, really hot this past week and the jury is in: The heatwave was made worse by man made climate factors. Yes. We did this to ourselves and it’s time to start working on fixing these things. The heatwave may have happened without our help but it was made far more likely with the damage of the climate crises.
Heatwaves happen. They’re a natural weather pattern. Nothing new there! What is new is the intensity of the heat. Without man made climate factors, the chance of the temps getting that high were much lower, once a thousand years as opposed to it possibly happening every few decades.
This is a very tangible reminder how dire the climate crisis is. It’s not the future, it’s affecting us all now but it’s not the end of the world (yet). If we start working towards change, we can start turning this thing around.