Climate Crisis Update 1

Latest Developments in The Fight For The Planet

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In a world of multiple crises what’s happening to the climate is the worst, but it’s often pushed into the background because the time frame seems so long. That’s a mistake. We no longer have the luxury of choosing one crisis and throwing all the resources at it before moving on to the next. We need to do them all at once.

And that’s the right approach because on some level they’re all connected.

The rise of Fascism across the globe is directly linked to attempts to stifle any mitigation of the climate crisis. The Ukraine War, what’s happening in the Middle East, the surging power of the Oligarch class, each one influences the other in some way.

But in the manufactured chaos it’s easy to lose clarity. That’s why I’m regularly going to be delivering one of these Climate Crisis Updates, as I did with the Iran War — to give the overarching issue the focus it needs.

I’ll not only be looking at the impact of climate change on the planet, but also attempts to fight back — from tree-planting and rewilding to electric vehicles, clean energy and legal frameworks.

All these posts will be left free to all, hopefully to be used as a resource and shared where necessary.

• Europe is facing a catastrophic heatwave and it’s coming to America in time for Independence Day. Those deniers who say “it’s only weather” are missing the point. All of the temperature records are being broken, and they’re being broken repeatedly. This has never happened before. It is not normal.

• The last few days:

• 🇫🇷 France — 43.8°C

• 🇪🇸 Spain: Hottest June day — 42.7°C

• 🇩🇪 Germany: Hottest day ever — 41.7°C

• 🇨🇿 Czechia: Hottest day ever — 41.1°C

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland: Hottest June day — 38.8°C

• 🇩🇰 Denmark: Hottest day ever — 37°C

• 🇬🇧 UK: Hottest June day — 36.7°C

• 🇵🇱Poland: Hottest day ever — 40.5°C

• The US is looking at sweltering temperatures in the capital, New York and elsewhere across the Independence Day holidays with temperatures reaching 105°F.

  

• Seawater has advanced 18km inland in Italy, threatening agriculture and protected wetlands, because the flow of Italy’s longest river, the Po, has dwindled.

• Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant has cut ‌output due to the high temperature of the River Danube which is used as a coolant, the government said. In Switzerland, the Beznau nuclear power plant took both reactors off grid on Friday because the temperature in the River Aare reached 25C.

• The heat caused one thousand excess deaths in just four days in France. 85% of deaths were among people aged 65 and over, according to Santé Publique France. Home deaths surged sharply.

• Organisers pulled the plug on Dutch music festival Defqon.1 after an unprecedented code red warning for extreme heat. Police had to be called to quell angry festival goers.

• While Trump has been gutting all federal attempts to tackle climate change, the UK recently announced the Energy Independence Bill — supported by Greenpeace: no new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, a permanent fracking ban and the creation of a Warm Homes Agency.

• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heatwave is now occurring nearly annually.”