The Year Summer Got Serious
It’s getting hotter in places that aren’t supposed to be hot, and our bodies are starting to pay the price.
Agriculture isn’t being spared, either.
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg
Extreme heat has engulfed parts of Europe, the US and China. By early last week, at least 86 Chinese cities had issued heat alerts. A so-called heat dome has formed over the Southwest and central US, breaking long-standing temperature records and intensifying what had already been an extremely hot summer. In Europe, the heat wave has been described as the worst in over 200 years, causing wildfires across Spain, Portugal and France. The situation in France and the UK is expected to be particularly intense until Tuesday, with the first-ever “Red Extreme” heat alert issued by Britain’s Met Office.
If you judged by the tabloids, you’d think that a heat wave was fun. Pictures show people sunbathing in the park or relaxing at the beach, and headlines draw comparisons with tropical paradises: “UK warmer than parts of the Maldives.” One 2021 study showed how climate change was almost entirely absent from newspaper coverage of the 2018 heat wave. But this is dangerous — and only going to get worse.