Unless we act soon, this heatwave is just a taste of things to come

It’s not too late to avert the climate crisis from becoming even more deadly – but the window is closing

igh temperature records are being obliterated across western Europe, some of which had been previously set during the heatwave in 2003 that is estimated to have left tens of thousands dead. Raging wildfires are displacing thousands of people, one of the many compounding impacts of the climate crisis. This heatwave is another reminder that we have already breached unsafe levels of global heating.

As our planet warms, these lethal heatwaves will become more frequent and more intense. In fact, we may look back on these years as some of the coolest, compared with what will come if we do not act now. Human life will encounter life-threatening impacts with increasing frequency and mounting consequences. Countless scientific reports have been conveying this reality for decades.

Yet the future is not written in stone. As a geologist who studies climate change and sea level rise, I think it is paramount to remember that we do not have to accept the worst outcomes of global heating, if we act now to sharply reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

The threat that climate breakdown poses to human life should propel us to act – to protect ourselves, our families and our communities. But for many of us, the potential impact of a world that is warmer by one or two degrees remains too abstract until we experience the threat first-hand.

Did you know that when temperatures approach 120 degrees F (48.8 degrees C), many planes cannot operate? My grandfather, an aeronautical engineer, was the first to explain to me how there is less “lift” for the airplanes – that’s what keeps them up in the sky – when the air gets too hot.

Of course, that’s if the runways don’t buckle first, as we witnessed this week in places like Luton airport, where runways are not built to withstand such high temperatures. Train tracks were also mangled by searing heat this week in the UK, disrupting train services across the country. The large-scale crippling of infrastructure we are seeing underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate continued warming.

Strictly speaking, I don’t believe that there is one right temperature for humans to live at. But as things heat up, certain things – like trains, planes, even human bodies – won’t be able to work the same, or maybe won’t be able to work at all. It is heartbreaking that we have not yet mustered the political will to meet this challenge.

The fossil fuel industry is a lucrative business. And oil and gas companies have repeatedly used their money to deny, delay and even deflect the blame of the climate crisis to individuals. In the same week that this most recent heatwave struck, as if on cue, there was yet another failed attempt to pass climate legislation in the United States – this time thwarted by US senator Joe Manchin, who profits handsomely from the fossil fuel industry.
We still have options. But it is time to act.

Declaring a state of emergency for our climate may acknowledge the crisis but does not immediately convey that we are the ones actively committing us to this danger. Herein lies the good news, however: as the cause of our rapidly warming climate, we also have the power to be the solution.

To be clear, this is not about saving the planet, per se – as a geologist I can tell you that the Earth has been here for 4.5bn years and that I am not concerned about the planet surviving human-driven global warming. What I worry about is how humans will fare in this warmer world.

This planet will not be the same. Even at only about 1.1C of global warming to date – an amount of warming that many refer to as “safe” and acceptable – we are already suffering severe consequences, including heatwaves that are more frequent and more intense.

How much more suffering must we endure? That is squarely up to us. While we cannot change the past, we can control how this plays out in the future.

Andrea Dutton is an international expert on climate change and sea level rise who is a MacArthur Fellow and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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