France saw around 1,000 additional deaths last week at the height of its record-smashing heat wave, the country’s public health agency said Sunday, as the head of the World Health Organization warned that Europe is now the fastest-warming continent and needs to do more to protect its citizens.
Temperature records were toppled in several countries on the weekend, wildfires were sparked in Germany and Berlin police used water cannons to cool down the crowds.
Meanwhile, the heat wave slowly moved toward eastern parts of the continent.
Germany marked a new record for the third day in a row with 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in Neißemünde, near the border with Poland, which baked under its new all-time high of 40.5 C (104.9 F). The Czech Republic also experienced its hottest day ever with 41.9 C (107.4 F), up from the previous record of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 F) on Saturday.
The people not denying it also don’t do anything about it. Most politicians and their constituency aren’t conspiracy theorists and most governments aren’t hard right but they still “can’t” tax or ban problematic business practices and individual behaviors. “Because of the economy.”
The rhetoric might be good, distinct and important, but the actions are almost the same as what you’d expect from deniers.
I don’t know how you can say that. In the US the Biden administration put a lot of clean energy regulations in place to discourage coal energy and promote renewable energy and EVs. Then a global warming denialist took office and reversed everything.
I work in an auto manufacturing plant with eight or nine figures of EV manufacturing equipment sitting around, cancelled, gathering dust due to the political change.
You’d need 5 Earths for the global population to live like Americans and they are squarly behind everyone else on historic and per capita emissions. Swapping to EVs is a drop in the bucket. That’s what I mean with quasi denier behavior. It’s only done when it’s economically lucrative already.
Trump is a fascist and uses carbon emissions something like a badge of honor. They are not the same, but Biden wasn’t good enough by a long shot.
Capitalism has become the single driving imperative of this planet and it is going to kill us all. If money is power then capitalism is a form of government.
We are letting people die because it makes sense within the rules of a fucking game that keeps dividing and destroying our civilization.