Will We Remember When the Fall Returns?

Heat waves are crushing Europe

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

In Europe we are currently experiencing our third heat wave of the year. 2024 was recorded as the hottest on record in France, only to be beaten in 2025 and then smashed again this year. Germany has experienced 5000 heat-related deaths already this summer, France in excess of 2700, and twelve people were burned to death in Spain last week fleeing one of the many fires raging across this dry and desiccated continent. Even Britain, normally reliably damp and cool, has not been spared and their death rate is also climbing steadily.

Suddenly the debate around whether global warming is real or not has receded as we grit our teeth and try to go about our day-to-day lives in sweltering conditions. I feel we have entered a sort of Strait of Hormuz situation, but without a Memorandum of Understanding. We are trapped in a disaster of our own making and despite all our attempts to ignore the problem, it stubbornly refuses to go away.

Part of the problem is that Europe has always been more concerned with excessive cold than it has with extreme heat.

For years, the emphasis has been on insulating our homes against the chill and finding the most cost-effective ways to warm them rather than keep them cool. This sudden turn of events has caught us by surprise. The fact that climate scientists have spent years warning of exactly the scenario we are now facing doesn’t seem to have made the situation any less startling. In France, fights broke out as people desperately battled to purchase portable air conditioning units and fans which were suddenly in short supply. Tempers were no doubt exacerbated by having to wait in line in the 40°C heat.

Photo by Ronan Furuta on Unsplash

The big question that now arises is whether we will hold on to our concerns once the cooler weather returns, or are we going to push the matter aside again when it comes time to dig our pullovers out from the back of our wardrobes. How bad do things need to become before the underlying problem starts to be addressed? So far, all the evidence points to a sort of collective amnesia taking place once again as autumn draws in.

To be fair, it is beginning to feel as though big business is at last beginning to wake up to the reality of a far hotter future.

Eurostar, the company responsible for running the trains travelling the undersea tunnel between Britain and France, recently ordered fifty new trains capable of withstanding 45° C. They have now ordered that those trains be capable of withstanding conditions of 55° C. A frightening possibility, but now a real one. This year, when temperatures reached the low forties, water consumption in the country went up by twenty percent. Most of the continent is experiencing severe drought conditions and restrictions are being increased at a dizzying rate.

As individuals, it is easy to feel that we are helpless. After all, other than following the temporary rules about washing cars and watering gardens, what can we do, other than sweat? For politicians, any mention of global weather change becomes something of a nightmare and they tend to get nervous and start looking for the closest exit. Any moves to address the problem are bound to offend somebody, and, more than likely, a great many somebodies. The result is that they prefer to shy away from making the big and painful changes that are needed.

Although I have a fairly low opinion of the political class in general, (horribly low, in fact) I have to recognize that they are a product of our own making. In democratic countries, it was we the people that put them in power and so it is down to us to make them change course.

When the cooler weather comes and we stroll towards those election stations in our scarves and coats, we need to remember these scorching days. It is up to us to vote for those who will prioritize the issues rather than those offering us a percentage point or two off our income tax. If we forget the parched fields and the burning forests, you can be sure politicians will too.